Fabio Quartararo in dominant form as he leads Jack Miller in Misano MotoGP FP1

Fabio Quartararo made a brilliant start to the Misano MotoGP after leading the way for much of FP1.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha MotoGP Misano, Italy 2022
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha MotoGP Misano, Italy 2022

Making a rare appearance at the top 💞of a MotoGP session, Pol Espargaro led the way following the initial flurry of laps. 

One spot ahead of his brother Aleix, the two Spaniards were then bumped down to second and t🍨hird when another Honda in the form of Alex Marquez went quickest.

As Pol continued to show good speed in fourth, c💜hampionship leader Fabio Quartararo went quicke𝓰st after setting a brilliant final sector. 

Challenged on several occasions 🐻throughout the lap by Maverick Vinales, Alex Rins and Francesco Bagnaia, Quartararo was over two tenths clear in the final sector alone, giving him a nea𒆙r three tenths advantage over Rins come the start-finish line

After improving his time by 0.006s, Quartararo had to abort his next lap after a big momen🔯t heading into turn one.

The Yamah🍷a rider was close to losing the front-end of his M1 which led to him picking up his machine and running off the circuit.  

Putting his turn one scare behind him, Quartararo then went on to set the first sub 1m 33🌸s lap ofꦿ the weekend. 

Beginning to show their pac𓆉e, Ducati went quickest but not with the riders you might have expected…

Com🥃peting in his third wildcard round of the ✃season, Michele Pirro jumped ahead of Quartararo thanks to a time of 1:32.888s. 

After narro𒊎wly missing out on top spot with just over ten minutes to go, Vinales’ next effort hel𓃲ped him achieve just that. 

Despiteꦆ losing time to Pirro and Quartara♐ro again in sector four, Vinales came across the line to go nearly two tenths clear. 

Maverick Vinales, MotoGP, San Marino MotoGP, 2 September
Maverick Vinales, MotoGP, San Marino MotoGP, 2 September

As Quartararo jumped to the top of the leaderboard late on, team-mate Franco Morbidelli pღroduced a stunning ‘save’ at turn on😼e.

Like Quartararo earlier in the session, Morbidel𓆉li momentarily lost the front-end, however, the Italian was considerably clo🐽ser to coming undone. 

With under five minutes remaining Quartararo suffered another scary moment at ‘Curvone’, as he ran off-track before enduring a tank-slapper when crossing the curbs in order to return 🔯to the circuit🦹. 

Sti𒈔ll, it wasn’t enough to stop Quartararo as he went eve🌟n faster on his final lap which was good enough to put him two tenths clear of Miller. 

Andrea Dovizioso, who is competing in his final MotoGP race this wꦜeekend, began the weekend with a 16th place finish. 

In other news, HRC have confir♍med Tetsuta Nagashima will make a wildcard appearance at the Japanese MotoGP later this month.

Read More