Italian MotoGP: Maverick Vinales fastest in FP1 as Fabio Quartararo shines

Maverick Vinales ends the opening MotoGP practice at Mugello fastest ahead of Fabio Quartararo.

Maverick Vinales
Maverick Vinales

Fresh off his best weekend of the season last time out in Barcelona, Aleix Espargaro was the first rider to fall victim to the hard-braking turn one.

The Aprilia rider avoided a crash, however, he did run into the gravel before re-joining the action with very dirty tyres.

Alex Rins made a good start to FP1 as he put his Yamaha top of the leaderboard ahead of both Marquez brothers.

However, Rins saw his progress halted at turn one when he crashed just ahead of Pedro Acosta, who also ran off the track and into the gravel.

Marc Marquez then relegated Rins to P2 when he went over a tenth quicker than the Yamaha rider.

A time of 1:46.587s was set by the eight-time world champion, while Bagnaia, who is aiming to make it three Mugello wins in succession this weekend, was third fastest.

As race runs continued to dominate FP1, Pedro Acosta moved into second spot behind Marquez.

With less than ten minutes to go Acosta then went to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:46.459s.

Maverick Vinales then lowered the benchmark time evern further as he closed in on the first sub 1m 46s lap of the weekend.

Franco Morbidelli then slotted his GP24 Ducati bike into second spot before Acosta crashed his KTM at turn ten.

Fabio Quartararo became the latest rider to find time late on as he put his M1 second behind former team-mate Vinales.

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