Bagnaia leads the opening day despite the crash

The paddock stayed in Misano for two days of official testing during the season after the San Marino Grand Prix.

Rain in the morning left the track saturated for the first three and a half hour session at the start of the day. Only eight drivers set lap times.

Johann Zarco from Pramac set the pace at the end of the morning session as it was drying enough to allow a smooth run. The Frenchman led the overall standings with 1: 33.895 minutes.

When the action resumed in the afternoon for the second four-hour session of the day, Ducati’s Jack Miller set the first pace with 1: 32.116 minutes.

This should be the benchmark for some time, with the top spot eventually being taken over by his teammate Francesco Bagnaia – fresh from his second consecutive win in 2021 last Sunday at Misano.

Bagnaia crashed in the right-hand corner of Turn 10 at Tramonto about two hours after the afternoon session, but did not suffer any ill effects.

He rejoined the session shortly after, taking the top of the timesheet with a time of 1: 31.801 seconds while still having about 90 minutes to run before improving to 1: 31.524s when the clock got into the last Hour clicked.

Bagnaia’s lap went undisputed to the checkered flag, and the Ducati rider ended the day 0.107 seconds ahead of Honda’s Pol Espargaro.

Honda had numerous items to try out, with a radically different-looking 2022 prototype making a public appearance – the front of the bike took on a more Yamaha-esque look.

Marc Marquez did a few laps on the prototype bike, as did test driver Stefan Bradl – but only in the morning.

LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami completed the top three ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir, who had a 2022 engine for testing alongside teammate Alex Rins – after doing so in pre-season.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was fifth fastest ahead of Avintia rookie Luca Marini, while his teammate Enea Bastianini in 21st place – fresh from his first podium at the San Marino GP last weekend – ended his day prematurely after a crash.

Jack Miller finished seventh in the sister factory team Ducati ahead of championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who together with his teammate Franco Morbidelli in 18th place did laps on Yamaha’s prototype 2022.

Morbidelli afterward said that the 2022 bike didn’t really look like the 2019 bike he’d ridden since 2020 until the last weekend, noting that the base of the 2022 M1 showed signs of improvement over the already solid 2021 bike exhibited.

Pramacs Jorge Martin and Brad Binder’s KTM completed the top 10, while Valentino Rossi, despite his impending retirement, shows no signs of slowing down as he finished 11th on 56 laps on his Petronas SRT Yamaha.

Early pacesetter Zarco slipped to 13th place between Miguel Oliveira on the KTM and Rins at the end of the day, Marc Marquez was 15th ahead of Aprilias Maverick Vinales, who also suffered a fall during the test.

The tests will continue on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. local time.