Similar to Peter Gabriel in 1986, Mugello bathed in red rain at the last three MotoGP Grand Prix of Italy on the breathtaking asphalt strip, embedded in the beautiful green hills of Tuscany. Andrea Dovizioso struggled with illness to win his first dry MotoGP race in 2017 on the Desmosedici, while Jorge Lorenzo finally got a win from his Ducati a year later.
And in 2019, Danilo Petrucci completed the rags-to-riches dream story when he defeated Marc Marquez and Dovizioso in a thriller in 2019 and, seven years after his debut season in MotoGP at the Ioda, stood on the top step of the podium for the first time on the CRT, which never guarantees would make any race.
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It would have been hard to look past a straight Ducati win in 2020 at Mugello, but the hills fell silent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although we are not out of the woods yet and the typical yellow-wrapped crowd had to stay at home, the world will be a little better in 2021, as the MotoGP can be let loose in Mugello.
And Francesco Bagnaia ushered in his Ducati in a way that probably wouldn’t detract from bookmakers’ predictions, leading his Ducati at the best time of the day – a 1: 46.147s in FP2.
Bagnaia will be in the first of (currently) two MotoGP races on his home soil in 2021 with a bit of wind in the sails. Second in the championship, just one point behind Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo after three podiums in the first five races, he was tagged by Marquez in the Italian press earlier this week as the Ducati rider battling for the title.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The young Italian has won a lot of fans for the way he has approached his season so far and admitting that he took a first home win on Italian soil for Ducati wasn’t on the foreground of his mind before the weekend which shows how good his head is is screwed on. The key for him was making sure he started the weekend with some consistency at his pace.
Consistency was something he immediately saw on Friday. Bagnaia did his best lap in FP1 – one minute in 47.186 minutes, earning him sixth place – on his last tour of the session on a medium-sized rear tire that had just completed its 17th lap. He didn’t ride that much used tires in FP2 in the afternoon, but cooler forecast conditions for Sunday (with impending rain in the air) still make his FP1 run relevant.
Even without any noteworthy long runs, Bagnaia’s pace was solid on a fresh medium surface and 1: 47.660 minutes on a seven lap old medium rear and 17 lap old medium front indicates a good longevity at his racing pace.
“We still have to improve a little, I mean more electronics, I drive myself, more than the attitude of the bike. But I feel good and I think we have great potential on this track” Fabio Quartararo
What has made Mugello such a Ducati stronghold in recent years has been the brutal top speed of the motorcycle – Pramac deputy Michele Pirro set a new track speed record of 357.6 km / h in FP2 on the 1.1 km long main straight of Mugello on.
Top speed has never been a Yamaha fore, but in modern times it’s a 10-time Mugello winner – although it’s currently witnessing a 2016 drought. But neither Fabio Quartararo nor Maverick Vinales was put off by its top speed deficit relative to the Ducatis, citing the fact that they won both races in Qatar, which has a massive straight, and those wins came after both Quartararo as well as Vinales had to fight their way through the field.
Where the M1 excels at Mugello are sectors two and three – the run of Materassi on the left at turn 4 through the long right Correntaio at turn 12. In FP2, the Ducati riders beat the split times in sectors one and four, but it did was the fastest Yamaha rider in sectors two and three.
Maverick Vinales, Yamaha Factory Racing, Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Quartararo was the best of the M1 in fourth place at the end of Friday and his race pace looks strong. On a five-lap run in FP2 on a medium-sized tail that already had seven laps, Quartararo reeled off 1: 46.960, 1: 47.095, 1: 46.975, 1: 47.071 and 1: 47.300. The Frenchman admits that he has to find a little more on Saturday and exudes confidence.
“My second run was really good, I was low for five laps in 1 min. 47 min. So i feel great Our pace looks really good, really comfortable, ”he said. “We still have to improve a bit, I mean more electronics, I drive myself, more than the attitude of the motorcycle. But I feel good and I think we have great potential on this track. “
Teammate Vinales was similarly decent in FP2 with pace on used tires, putting a series of low to mid 1:47 minutes on a mid-tail with nine laps at the start of this run. In eighth place of the combined times, he could not improve due to the late traffic in the second quarter – which also annoyed Quartararo. The FP1 pacesetter also noted that it still needs to find a little more on the electronics side.
Vinales mentioned that the drop in the mid-size tire was pretty significant. This is reflected in Franco Morbidelli’s second run in FP2, in which he did two low laps of 1:48 on a 13 lap old medium at the start of that run. His high pace of 1:47 minutes on somewhat younger media does not come close to Quartararo’s, but Morbidelli was third fastest on a two-year-old M1, almost 20 km / h behind on the straight.
However, Yamaha’s most significant win on Friday came from the launch of its front holeshot device. When asked for a long time, it met with great applause from its drivers – especially from the factory duo. If Yamaha can stay reasonably bloodless, given the long run to San Donato, it will pose a serious threat to Ducati – especially if Vinales and Quartararo are ahead and can take advantage of Yamaha’s cornering speed. Given that the hard front was not well received by the Yamaha riders on Friday, any scenario where they don’t have to push a medium front too hard will come in handy.
As for the other Ducatis, the racing pace of Spanish and French GP winner Jack Miller is a little more difficult to gauge. His fresh tire pace on medium and soft in FP1 and FP2 was not particularly outstanding. However, in FP1, he drove a 1: 47.716 minutes on a 19-lap-old Medium tail while feeling stronger on the Medium after doing 12 laps on the Soft in an FP2, in which he finished ninth. Miller certainly suggests he’ll be there on Sunday, while Pramac’s Johann Zarco admitted he’ll need to find a little more in the warmer conditions – especially in the time attack – after finishing 10th on Friday.
Jack Miller, Ducati team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
While Yamaha represents half of the blue charge that could end Ducati’s reign at Mugello, Suzuki came out of the blocks on Friday – and one name in particular, Alex Rins, has been cited by a number of riders as one to watch out for .
It’s easy to forget that Rins was at the forefront in the race to win Mugello 2019 and is therefore in good shape at Mugello, while the Suzuki fits the flowing nature of the track. Just 0.071 seconds off Friday’s pace in second place, Rins rattled a series of solid, low laps of 1:47 minutes on an 11 lap old center stern in FP2 and was aided by a “secret” electronics setup that improves the bikes’ acceleration , which was the motorcycle’s main problem in 2019 and this in turn has slightly improved the top speed of the GSX-RR.
Rins was still the main problem for Suzuki and was quick to point out that his 1: 46.218 minutes in FP2 would not be enough to keep him in the mix in qualifying. A step forward on Saturday is therefore crucial to Rins’ attack and he will have to see it to the end after falling in strong positions in the last three races.
“I think seven or eight riders can fight for victory. But right now I think my pace is really good so I’ll just try to keep working the same way tomorrow because I think we’re on the right track are.” Francesco Bagnaia
Teammate and world champion Joan Mir only finished 11th at the end of Friday, but this was mainly due to his time attack at the end of FP2. But he wasn’t that happy with the bike, a setup change made to make it easier to turn made his Suzuki too “aggressive” and prevented it from being “fluent”. So Mir has a clear goal for Saturday’s FP3 and FP4 sessions, but Rins’ form should offer some encouragement.
Bagnaia is under no illusions that its Ducati peers won’t be in the mix over the weekend, but is wary of the blue threat from the factory Yamaha and Suzuki.
“The Yamaha guys are definitely very strong, Fabio and Maverick and Franky were so fast today,” said the Ducati rider. “But I think the other riders in Ducati will certainly improve their pace tomorrow too, so they will be quick. And the Suzuki drivers too, so I think seven or eight drivers can fight for victory. But right now I think my pace is very good, so I’ll just try to keep working the same way tomorrow because I think we’re on the right track. “
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
A battle with eight riders for victory would be a fitting way to signal Mugello’s return to the calendar, but that group could swell as Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira’s factory KTMs showed solid pace on an RC16 going through a The new chassis was reinforced, which made it easier for them to get out of the corners, while the RC16 was only 1.1 km / h behind Pirro’s speed in FP2 thanks to a new fuel from ETS. And Takaaki Nakagami was comfortably the best Honda runner in seventh place on his LCR run RC213V after having a pretty solid pace on used rubber in FP2.
Ducati is currently in the middle of a purple patch, having taken podiums in every race to date and arriving on home soil with back-to-back wins in the bag.
It remains in a good position to continue both its streak and Mugello rule, but the brute force that has kept it out of the reach of the Yamahas and Suzukis in recent years now seems insufficient to keep them in the Year 2021 down.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images