Martin, who leads the championship by 39 points coming into the Mugello round, scored his third pole of the year with a new lap record of 1m44.504s set on his first flying lap.

The Spaniard, who looks set to step up to the factory Ducati team in 2025, beat reigning champion and last year’s Italian GP winner Bagnaia.

The Italian was just 0.043 seconds behind Martin, though will have to drop three grid spots for the grand prix after impeding Alex Marquez in practice on Friday afternoon.

Maverick Vinales completed the top three on his factory Aprilia, while Marc Marquez scored his best qualifying result since he was on pole at Jerez despite crashing late on in Q2.

The lap record was already beaten in the Q1 session by Pramac Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli, who topped that 15-minute segment with a 1m44.726s.

Team-mate Martin, on his first flying lap, lit up the timing screens at the start of Q2 and produced a 1m44.504s.

But Martin would never better this across the rest of the session and came under fire as the session wound down.

Bagnaia came close and was up on Martin through the first three sectors of his best lap, but lost out in the final split and came up just short with a 1m44.547s.

The factory Ducati rider will start second for Saturday’s sprint race, but for the grand prix he will be demoted to fifth.

Bagnaia was seething in parc ferme about this punishment, calling it a “clown penalty”.

“It’s one of the greatest thing I could do today, starting on the front row, because this clown penalty is something useless,” he said.

“But in any case, today it will be important to start well, to do the maximum. We know that our pace is very, very fast. So, I know if I can be leading in the first laps we can have a good advantage.”

Aprilia’s Vinales put together a good final lap, but also lost out in the final sector and had to settle for third.

Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez looked like he was on course to beat Martin’s time with just under three minutes to go in Q2, but crashed going into Turn 10.

Despite this, Marquez held onto fourth in his first Q2 appearance since the Spanish GP and will be promoted to the front row for the grand prix courtesy of Bagnaia’s podium.

Enea Bastianini was fifth on the second factory team Ducati ahead of Q1 pacesetter Morbidelli, while Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta headed row three in seventh on the sole KTM in Q2.

Alex Marquez was eighth on his Gresini Ducati, with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Yamaha’s Alex Rins completing the top 10. Trackhouse Aprilia duo Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez capped off row four.

KTM’s Brad Binder couldn’t lift himself out of Q1 and will start 13th, while Fabio Quartararo couldn’t scale the same heights as his Yamaha team-mate Rins down in 15th.

Joan Mir was the fastest Honda in 17th.

MotoGP Italian GP — Q2 results:

MotoGP Italian GP — Q1 results:

Bagnaia dominated the hour-long afternoon session with a 1m44.938s, but is currently under investigation from the FIM stewards for potentially blocking Alex Marquez on a flying lap late on.

Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta recovered to third after a fast crash at Turn 13 halfway through the session, while Marc Marquez secured direct passage into Q2 for the first time since the Spanish GP.

FP1 pacesetter Maverick Vinales set the initial pace on the factory Aprilia with a 1m46.165s, though this was quickly bested by Marc Marquez with a 1m45.582s.

The Gresini Ducati rider’s lap, set with around 45 minutes remaining, stood as the benchmark until Vinales – fitted with a fresh soft rear tyre – edged clear with a 1m45.245s as the session ticked into its final 20 minutes.

Following his moment with Alex Marquez, in which the Gresini rider was left furious having felt like he was baulked at Turn 12 with 10 minutes to go, Bagnaia lit up the timing screens on his final flying lap.

The factory Ducati rider put in a 1m44.938s with four minutes to go, before heading back to pitlane without attempting any other efforts.

Alex Rins was his closest challenger on the factory Yamaha, 0.273s behind, with Acosta third fastest.

Alex Rins, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Miguel Oliveira leaped up to fourth late in the session on his Trackhouse Racing Aprilia, while Marc Marquez completed the top five.

Enea Bastianini was sixth on the second factory team Ducati, with championship leader Jorge Martin in seventh ahead of Alex Marquez, Vinales and his Aprilia team-mate Aleix Espargaro.

A frantic final few minutes saw the top 10 order behind Bagnaia rapidly change, with Fabio Quartararo the biggest loser having slid from third to 11th on his Yamaha.

The 2021 world champion had to abort his final flying lap after suffering a scare on the front end into Turn 10.

He will face Q1 in qualifying on Saturday morning, as will all three factory team KTMs — Brad Binder, Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro.

LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami was fastest of the Hondas in 19th, while Luca Marini on the factory team RC213V was last.

MotoGP Italian GP — FP2 results:

For its home race, Aprilia has five RS-GPs on the grid with its two factory team riders, the Trackhouse Racing duo and wildcard Lorenzo Savadori.

Vinales was the best of them at the top of the timesheets in the first 45-minute practice of the Mugello weekend, the Spaniard setting a 1m46.140s on a fresh medium rear tyre in the closing stages.

He headed 2021 world champion Quartararo on the factory Yamaha, with Franco Morbidelli leading the Ducati charge on his Pramac-run GP24.

Marc Marquez set the early pace on his Gresini Ducati as he puts the rider market talk on his future to one side, the six-time MotoGP world champion posting a 1m47.002s.

Yamaha’s Alex Rins then took over moments later with a 1m46.719s, before Marquez returned to the top of the order with half an hour remaining.

Marquez’s 1m46.587s stood as the benchmark for the next 20 minutes before Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta – fitted with a new medium rear tyre – fired in a 1m46.459s.

Vinales edged ahead with a 1m46.140s five minutes later, which would cement him top spot as the chequered flag came out.

Quartararo put in a late 1m46.328s to jump up to second, with Yamaha having tested recently at Mugello.

Morbidelli completed the top three from Acosta, who crashed late on at Turn 10 while pushing for a session-best lap.

Championship leader Jorge Martin – who looks set to join the factory Ducati squad next year – completed the top five having been one of only two riders alongside team-mate Morbidelli to fit a fresh soft tyre in FP1.

Marc Marquez was sixth having stuck with the same tyres all session, while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was seventh ahead of Rins, who suffered an early crash at Turn 1.

Francesco Bagnaia looks to extend his run of Italian GP wins to three in succession this weekend on his factory team Ducati and was ninth in FP1, with Alex Marquez 10th on the second Gresini Ducati.

The top factory team KTM was Jack Miller in 12th, while Pol Espargaro was 15th as he makes a wildcard appearance for the Austrian manufacturer at Mugello.

Luca Marini was the top Honda in 19th as the factory team HRC riders run the new aero Johann Zarco raced with last weekend at Barcelona.

Savadori was last on the fifth Aprilia.

MotoGP Italian GP — FP1 results: