Pedro Acosta topped the timesheets on the first day of action for the 2023 Italian Moto2 at Mugello as rising temperatures take their toll in Friday afternoon's P2 session.

Returning to action following a three-week hiatus, Acosta comes to Mugello bidding to put his costly crash out of contention at Le Mans behind, the Spaniard beginning his quest in style as the only rider to dip under 1min 51secs.

Set during the cooler P1 session, no rider inside the top six posted an improvement in the afternoon with Celestino Vietti chasing Acosta in second, followed by SpeedUp duo Alonso Lopez and Fermin Aldeguer.

Experienced Mattia Pasini, meanwhile, made a surprise appearance inside the top five, the Italian called up for his home round as a wild-card third entry for the Fieten Olie Racing GP squad.

Le Mans podium winner Filip Salac was sixth fastest on the Gresini Kalex, with Jake Dixon in seventh as the best of the rider to go quicker in the afternoon session.

Championship leader Tony Arbolino also made incremental gains to end his day in eighth place, just ahead of Marc VDS team-mate Sam Lowes, who was ninth despite a fall at Turn 1 in P1. Dennis Foggia completed the top ten ahead of his home round.

Meanwhile, third Brit Rory Skinner ended his day in 28th after being involved in a bizarre accident that forced the session to be red flagged for a time.

The Scotsman came down on the exit of Turn 14, but while he detached from his American Racing Kalex, it stayed upright to continue on by itself for around 100m. Running across the gravel,, the bike eventually lost balance and came down, only to them dig into the gravel to flick it into a series of barrel-rolls that took it back onto the track and landing in the middle of the asphalt.

Fortunately there were no riders immediately following and Skinner walked away unharmed.

Italian Moto2, Mugello | Practice Results FP1 & FP2 Combined

Friday | Conditions - Dry, Sunny, Warm