TAKA QUALIFIES AS TOP HONDA AT MUGELLO

Takaaki Nakagami will start the Italian Grand Prix as the leading Honda following a thrilling day of qualifying action at Mugello. The LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider featured regularly at the top end of the timesheets on Saturday and was a little unfortunate to end up on the third row for Sunday’s race after claiming eighth position on the grid.

Sitting 13^th overnight, the Japanese star ensured he would advance automatically to Q2 as a strong lap towards the end of FP3 was enough to see him finish the session in 9^th. Having posted 13^th in FP4, he played his part in a dramatic Q2 session – which was initially red-flagged due to a big Marc Marquez crash – with riders defying mixed conditions to post some incredible lap times.