MotoGP Misano 1 FP1 LIVE: Maverick Vinales takes his revenge before the rain!

By unexpectedly finishing 8th in an Aragon Grand Prix won majestically by Francis Bagnaia in front of an invigorated and insatiable Marc Márquez, fabio quartararo saw its championship lead reduced from 65 to 53 points.

Five rounds from the final finish line, especially when you are the only one to have scored points in each race, there is no danger in the matter, even if we sometimes notice that the subtle psychological mechanics of a level athlete can get stuck at the slightest opportunity! It is therefore with preserved confidence that the Frenchman heads to the Italian Riviera, on a track in Misano which had seen him finish in fourth position (on the green carpet) the second meeting of 2020, after falling during from the first.

The Devil has never won at Misano, but has often had strong results there since his time in Moto2, particularly in 2019 during an epic fight with Marc Márquez For victory.

Francis Bagnaia, he moved into the position of the chaser, benefiting from both a positive trend but also solid results on the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli: during the 2020 San Marino GP, he qualified in 6th position behind his teammate Jack Miller, after missing the previous three races due to a leg injury, before finishing the race in 2nd place for his first MotoGP podium.
At the 2020 Emilia Romagna GP, he missed out on pole position after exceeding track limits at turn 16 and qualified in 5th position. He took the lead of the race 22 laps from the finish ahead Maverick Vinales, but crashed 15 laps later at turn #6.

However, the two men did not commit many falls, with three units each, compared to the 18 of Marc Márquez !

Lurking in the shadow of the Ducati rider, it is also impossible to forget the reigning world champion, Joan mir who, in the absence of a victory this year, has shown great consistency despite the 57 points conceded to the Yamaha official.

20 points behind, things seem more difficult for a Johann zarco who seems to have stalled a little since the victory of his teammate Jorge Martin in Styria. His best MotoGP result at Misano is 10th place in 2018.

But imagining the future based on the past is not a rational attitude for a high-level pilot, and many will spare no effort to give substance to the statistics, starting with Jack Miller who will play at home for his manufacturer, and Alex Espargaro who will be keen to make an Aprilia currently in the spotlight shine.

Let us also count on Marc Márquez who showed in Aragon that he had lost none of his enthusiasm, and let us also observe the return of one of the stage's locals, Andrea Dovizioso, on a Yamaha Petronas alongside a Valentino Rossi who this weekend will experience a penultimate Grand Prix on his land…

Return also for Franco Morbidelli, but this time in the factory team, with Silvano Galbussera as chief mechanic until the end of the year.

Add to this a weather forecast that is generally dry but which, without going as far as the flood of 2007, expects some reappearances of the Saharan rain which dirty the track yesterday.

The MotoGP allocation for Misano 2021 includes a Soft, Medium and Hard front, all symmetrical, while the Soft, Medium and Hard rear are asymmetrical with a harder right side due to a greater number of corners in this direction and the greater stress that will be applied to that side of the tire during the 27 laps of the race.

After a limitation of 10 spectators last year due to Covid-000, the 19 edition allows an increased number of spectators with 2021 coming to encourage their racing heroes every day.

After four days of rest and media activities for the riders, it is now time to get on the bikes and give way to sport.

By the time the 24 drivers (including the wild cards of Michele Pirro et Stefan bradl) are preparing under a well-overcast sky and temperatures of 26° in the air and 25° on the asphalt, let's take advantage of these few minutes of live broadcast thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Misano-1 MotoGP™	2020	2021
FP1	1'31.721 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'32.666 Maverick Vinales (See here)
FP2	1'31.628 Brad Binder (See here)
FP3	1'31.127 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)
FP4	1'32.005 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)
Q1	1'31.559 Jack Miller (See here)
Q2	1'31.077 Maverick Vinales (See here)
Warm Up	1'32.402 Alex Marquez (See here)
Course	Vinales, Mir, P.Espargaro (See here)
All time lap record	1'31.077 Maverick Vinales 2020

When the red lights go out... Marc Márquez rushes first, Francis Bagnaia the last.

Everyone chose the medium rear tire except Brad Binder who opted for the hard way. At the front, the tender collects the majority, except for KTM riders and Stefan Bradl which are in medium.

At the end of the first round, Michele Pirro recorded the first reference in 1'35.476, a time improved on the next pass by Takaaki Nakagami in 1'34.514.

Maverick Vinales then quickly breaks the 1'34 mark on his Aprilia before Michele Pirro regains the advantage in 1'33.727.

alex rins briefly appears at the top of the ranking, but it is Alex Espargaro whose name remains displayed after the fifth pass, in 1'33.102 ahead of his teammate Maverick Vinales.

Marc Márquez then imposes his Honda in 1'33.100 but Maverick Vinales regains the lead in 1'32.966.

At the end of the first quarter of an hour, while most of the drivers have already returned to the box, the hierarchy is however made up of Francis Bagnaia in 1'32.801 ahead Jack Miller, Maverick Vinales, Marc Márquez, Aleix Espargaro, Alex Rins, Fabio Quartararo, Enea Bastianini, Johann Zarco, Takaaki Nakagami, Stefan Bradl, Pol Espargaro, Joan Mir, Franco Morbidelli, Michele Pirro, Alex Márquez, Iker Lecuona, Jorge Martin, Miguel Oliveira , Brad Binder, Valentino Rossi, Luca Marini, Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso at 3,2 seconds.

Upon resumption, Maverick Vinales lights the first two sectors red before losing time in the third. The Catalan's performance nevertheless remains impressive since it is the first time that he gets the better of his teammate.

Meanwhile, Joan mir takes command in 1'32.746 while the sky darkens noticeably...

Maverick Vinales then manages to line up four sectors in red and wins in 1'32.666 before the final rush! We can imagine the excitement in the Aprilia box!

A few drops begin to fall on the circuit... then it's real rain which forces all the drivers to stay in the box, 10 minutes before the end of the session.

The rain calms down but the track remains wet, which does not prevent the two Suzuki riders, as well as Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez, to go out on rain tires to make some adjustments in these conditions which we could find during this weekend.

A minute before the checkered flag, the rain doubles in intensity and puts an end to any desire...

Finally, Maverick Vinales, Joan Mir, Francesco Bagnaia, Jack Miller, Alex Rins, Pol Espargaro, Fabio Quartararo, Stéphane, Marc Márquez and Aleix Espargaro are currently pre-qualified for Q2, while Johann zarco, as in Aragon, is in 11th position.

MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix FP1 Results:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com