Pecco Bagnaia’s home Grand Prix got off to a strong start as the Lenovo rider topped a train of Ducatis from second in the standings.

Only Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro bettered the Italian around the Mugello layout on Friday with the 25-year-old’s 1’45.940 lap four-hundreds adrift and heading six Desmosedici’s in the top eight.

“I'm happy, I'm happy, my home Grand Prix, all went well,” Bagnaia reflected on Friday. "My feeling is great with the bike. We are working so well during the FP2 so I think we are ready for tomorrow.”

With temperatures high on Friday but rain and cooler conditions threatening across the remainder of the weekend, Saturday’s qualifying could prove even more crucial than normal.

“Tomorrow morning will be very important because I think will be the session to improve more because the condition will be more close to the race and let's see what we can do. In this moment I feel great with used tyres, with new tyres, so we started well.

“Let's see what will happen tomorrow, looks that can rain for the qualifying and this can change a bit the situation but I think we can be competitive on wet.

“We already tested today the medium front tyres, to put laps on it,' he continued. "Because if will be cold like it looks, will be important to use the medium and not the hard. So we're working on that thing and can change a lot the feeling because with less temperature, the tyre can work differently.”

An added attraction on Friday was Bagnaia’s use of the shoulder camera, relaying both the glorious audio of the V4 GP22 and shots of the Italian’s brush with his home track.

“This morning I look at FP1 and was impressive,” he admitted. “I was not thinking that I was so close to the asphalt with my head and chin, and it's incredible. It's incredible, and I really like it.”