Despite suffering untold to keep his bike on the asphalt track of the Misano Circuit, Fabio Quartararo managed to set the fastest time in the first free practice session of the San Marino Grand Prix, challenging the Ducati at their headquarters. The Frenchman saw many laps canceled for exceeding the track limits, but in the final part of the session he dropped his time up to three times to overtake Jack Miller, who was second, ahead of the Italian brand’s test driver , Michele Pirro, who came to lead the session as a wild card. A session that was held in the dry, waiting for the rain that already fell on the track on Thursday to return on Saturday. An instability that will continue, according to forecasts, also on Sunday.
Aleix Espargaró finished fourth, just ahead of his teammate Maverick Viñales and Pecco Bagnaia, the big favorite and winner of the last three races, who finished sixth, more than 4 tenths behind Fabio. Enea Bastianini was seventh, ahead of Alex Rins, Luca Marini and the Frenchman Joahnn Zarco, who closed the top 10, in which all the drivers mounted a medium rear tire, combined with the medium or soft compound, on the front wheel.
Eleventh finished Pol Espargaró, who came to lead the session in the early stages, with Brad Binder 12th and first KTM. Andrea Dovizioso in his last MotoGP race was 16th and the discordant note was Jorge Martín, who could only be 20th, just behind Raúl Fernández.
The substitute for the injured Joan Mir, the Japanese Kazuki Watanabe finished last almost 5 seconds from the training benchmark.
MotoGP FP1 classification:
| Cla | # | Pilot | Motorcycle | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | Top speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 |  Fabio Quartararo |
 |
Yamaha | 23 | 1’32,313 | 164.882 | 0 | ||
| 2 | 43 |  Jack Miller |
 |
Ducati | 23 | 1’32.537 | 0.224 | 0.224 | 164,483 | 0 |
| 3 | 51 |  Michele Pirro |
 |
Ducati | 19 | 1’32.693 | 0.380 | 0.156 | 164.206 | 0 |
| 4 | 41 |  Aleix Espargaró |
 |
April | 18 | 1’32,698 | 0.385 | 0.005 | 164,197 | 0 |
| 5 | 12 | Maverick Viñales |
|
Aprilia | 20 | 1’32.706 | 0.393 | 0.008 | 164.183 | 0 |
| 6 | 63 | Pecco Bagnaia |
 |
Ducati | 21 | 1’32.752 | 0.439 | 0.046 | 164.102 | 0 |
| 7 | 23 | Enea Bastianini |
 |
Ducati | 19 | 1’32.838 | 0.525 | 0.086 | 163.950 | 0 |
| 8 | 42 | Alex Rins |
 |
Suzuki | 22 | 1’32.858 | 0.545 | 0.020 | 163.914 | 0 |
| 9 | 10 | Luca Marini |
 |
Ducati | 20 | 1’32.981 | 0.668 | 0.123 | 163,697 | 0 |
| 10 | 5 | Johann Zarco |
 |
Ducati | 21 | 1’32.999 | 0.686 | 0.018 | 163,666 | 0 |
| see results | ||||||||||
