MotoGP Mugello: Vinales leads from Rossi but Ducatis very strong

The Mugello MotoGP race of 2017 promises to be a firecracker of a race. There's drama, different motorcycles and a whole crop of Italian riders and machinery itching to win on their home turf at a racetrack that has some of the quickest corners on the calendar. 

Local hero Valentino Rossi had a tough time on Friday - you have to hang on for dear life on the missile that is an accelerating MotoGP bike, and rather than his bruised kidneys and liver giving him trouble, it was his right arm that hurt him the most. After a crash in Friday practice, he managed to ride around his problems and qualify on pole. However, teammate Vinales had other ideas, and managed to get ahead of him by a mere 0.239 of a second. Dovizioso is third, with an incredible 351kph top speed. Team mate and usually test rider Michele Pirro is in fourth, with the two factory Hondas after. Marquez ended up sixth after trying to get a tow from Johann Zarco in qualifying but the plan backfired. Lorenzo is seventh, with Bautista and Petrucci eighth and ninth. Tito Rabat had one of his better days, qualifying tenth. Johann Zarco qualified a lowly eleventh, with Cal Crutchlow, the leader of the Friday timesheets, thirteenth. 

The factory Yamahas will battle for first, but Rossi will be more driven than ever to give his home race his all - he hasn't won here for many years, and last year his engine blew up while he was going for victory; a similar situation to the last MotoGP round where he crashed out on the final lap. Vinales needs to keep himself at the top of the riders' championship, and the Ducatis have fearsome pace on any straight here. The Hondas of Marquez and Pedrosa have capability anywhere - the former managing to ride around problems, and the latter with the tyre wear to spare in the second half of the race. We'll also be watching Zarco carefully; he manages to make softer compounds work for him, and he'll have to work his way up the order this time around. 

Like we've said before - we can't wait.