Matteo Ferrari has taken pole position for round two of the 2023 MotoE World Championship season on his home soil of Mugello.

The Italian - the inaugural MotoE World Cup winner back in 2019 - was arguably the standout performer during the opening round at Le Mans, scoring a dominant victory in the second race of the weekend despite having to serve a long-lap penalty.

It is momentum he has carried through to his home event at Mugello, Ferrari topping both Practice sessions on the Felo Gresini bike before doing enough with his first time attack in Q2 to secure pole position.

It was a close run thing though with HP Pons Los40 rider Mattia Casadei a mere 0.008s behind his countryman to take second, while Eric Granado completed the front row in his first appearance of the year for LCR following a spell on the sidelines through injury.

2019 WorldSSP Champion Randy Krummenacher headed up the Dynavoly Intact GP challenge in fourth, with Andrea Mantovani - who had a podium finish taken away last year when he was excluded for a technical infringement - fourth and fifth, ahead of the two riders who were forced to break out of Q1 to contest Q2, Jordi Torres - also a winner at Le Mans - and Kevin Zannoni.

This is the second race weekend of the season for one-make MotoE's new electric motorcycle, the Ducati V21L. All-new from the ground up, the bike has received rave reviews and has swiftly out-performed its predecessor - the Energica Ego - in terms of lap time.

Indeed, at Mugello - with its long home straight and flowing corners - Ferrari's pole-winning time was 3.5secs faster than that of Dominique Aegerter in 2022.

Italian MotoE, Mugello | Qualifying Results

Friday | Conditions - Dry, Sunny, Warm