San Marino MotoGP, Misano - Free Practice (4) Results

* Rookie

Official Misano MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 1m 31.065s (2021)
Fastest race lap:
Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 1m 32.171s (2021)

Gresini Ducati's Enea Bastianini returned to the top, ahead of Aprilia riders Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, during final practice for the San Marino MotoGP at Misano.

Light rain arrived during the previous Moto3 qualifying session and, although slick tyres were still the clear choice for the start of FP4, a number of riders - including Vinales Espargaro and Bastianini - chose to sit out the early stages.

Title leader Fabio Quartararo and home star Francesco Bagnaia had no such reservations, both leading the timesheets in the opening half of the session.

After the moisture disappeared, Bastianini, Jorge Martin, Johann Zarco and Aleix Espargaro arrived to split the pair with Espargaro and Quartararo then trading P1 after switching to the hard front tyre.

Vinales saved his best for the penultimate lap, leaping from seventh to first by 0.088s over team-mate Espargaro, before Bastianini went 0.036s under to top the session.

Qualifying 1, for those outside the top ten after third free practice, will now get underway.

Bagnaia will have a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's race after 'riding slow on the racing line in FP1 and causing a dangerous situation for other riders’.

Suzuki replacement Kazuki Watanabe suffered his first fall as a MotoGP rider but was a best yet +3.6s from the top.

Francesco Bagnaia arrives at his and Ducati’s home round on the crest of a wave after victories in the last three races.

That perfect run not only put Bagnaia into an elite group of three-in-a-row winners alongside Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, but transformed his title chances.

91 points adrift before the win streak began, Bagnaia is now 44 from Yamaha’s reigning champion Fabio Quartararo and just 12 behind Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Bagnaia is also the only one of that trio to have taken a prior Misano victory , in 2021, plus another podium in 2020, but he also fell from the lead of two other home races.

Last year’s late mistake not only confirmed Quartararo as world champion, but gave Marc Marquez what remains his and Honda’s most recent MotoGP victory.

The Spanish star won’t be present this weekend as he continues to recover from the fourth operation on his right arm, but Marquez made his two-wheeled return on a CBR600 at Aragon on Wednesday and HRC are hoping Marquez will be fit to make a comeback at next week’s post-race test.

Meanwhile, Misano will be the final MotoGP event for Andrea Dovizioso, Marquez’s main title rival from 2017-2019, who has decided to call an early end to a difficult season at RNF Yamaha with a farewell in front of his home fans.

The 36-year-old made his grand prix debut as a 125cc wild-card back in 2001 and has gone on to take 24 victories and 103 podiums. 15 wins and 62 podiums were in the premier-class, where he raced for Honda, Ducati and Yamaha.

Dovizioso will be replaced by Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow for the final six rounds.

Making his very first MotoGP start this weekend will be 31-year-old Japanese Superbike rider Kazuki Watanabe, who has been called up by Suzuki to replace the injured Joan Mir.

San Marino MotoGP - Full race weekend schedule (UK time)

Friday September 2

8am - Moto3 FP1

8.55am - MotoGP FP1

9.55am - Moto2 FP1

12.15am - Moto3 FP2

1.10pm - MotoGP FP2

2.10pm - Moto2 FP2

Saturday September 3

8am - Moto3 FP3

8.55am - MotoGP FP3

9.55am - Moto2 FP3

12pm - Moto3 Q2

12.30pm - MotoGP FP4

1.10pm - MotoGP Q1

1.35pm - MotoGP Q2

2.10pm - Moto2 Q1

2.35pm - Moto2 Q2

Sunday September 4

8am - Moto3 warm-up

8.20am - Moto2 warm-up

8.40am - MotoGP warm-up

10am - Moto3 race

11.20am - Moto2 race

1pm - MotoGP race