Nakagami fastest in Emilia-Romagna warm-up from Bagnaia

For the fifth time this season Takaaki Nakagami ended a MotoGP warm-up session fastest, while favorite for today’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Francesco Bagnaia was second. 

With a damp but rapidly drying Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli track greeting riders, there was a mix of tyre choice to begin warm-up as winner last time out Marc Marquez went out on wet mediums, while Ducati riders Jorge Martin and Bagnaia were on slicks. 

Marquez then returned to pit lane without completing a flying lap, while pole sitter for today’s race Bagnaia was on a soft front and rear - same as much of the field. 

Iker Lecuona, who secured his best ever qualifying result in MotoGP on Saturday (eighth), was the early pace setter, before Takaaki Nakagami took over at the top.

Nakagami led by a commanding three seconds after his third lap around, however, Bagnaia reduced the LCR Honda rider’s advantage to 2.5 seconds with half the session gone. 

As we’ve seen on many occasions this year, Marquez decided to miss most of the session and instead keep strength in his right shoulder. 

The Spaniard will set off from seventh in today’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after suffering a 22nd fall of the season in Q2 yesterday. 

The gap between Nakagami and Bagnaia continued to come down, before the Italian eventually went quicker three minutes from the end.

But, Nakagami wasn’t to be denied as he regained top spot before finishing first for the fifth warm-up session this year. Nakagami’s best time was also the weekend’s fastest lap thus far.

As was the case in qualifying, Franco Morbidelli was the top Yamaha in fourth, while Jack Miller was one place better off in third.

Lecuona finished fifth ahead of Alex Marquez, Pol Espargaro, Johann Zarco, Marc Marquez and Joan Mir.