Mooney VR46’s Luca Marini doubled up on the home celebrations at Mugello by securing a third place start for the Italian Grand Prix.

With his brother in attendance as Valentino Rossi’s race number was officially retired from MotoGP action, Marini ensured all eyes were on him as he set about a tricky and storm-hit qualifying in front of the passionate Italian crowds.

The 24-year-old’s pace was clear from the start of Saturday with the Italian sitting third in FP3, before frequently featured in the upper echelons as Q2 played out. His 1’46.327 lap in the dying seconds of the 15-minute session was immediately good enough for a front row start with teammate Marco Bezzecchi alongside, albeit bettering by a mere 0.08s, before Gresini’s Fabio di Giannantonio swept through to steal the show at the final moment.  

“I'm really satisfied about these results, because in this tricky condition is never easy,” a confident Marini said of the session littered with lightning and intermittent rain. “This was a target that also in a dry session was possible because especially on the time attack in this track from Friday, it was quite strong.

"I still need some tenths for fight for a good position for the race, because with the race tyres I am not so strong. But from the last two races, we are working in a good direction and we improved a lot of the feeling with the bike.

“I'm not satisfied at 100 per cent, for sure we need to close this gap as soon as possible. I hope that tomorrow morning can be dry for try something, especially to stop better the bike in the last phase. Unfortunately the FP4 was with these little bit of rain and it was impossible to try something but anyway, very happy for this result.

"I think we need to enjoy this moment in the team. For everybody it's a very nice moment but tomorrow, we will focus on the race and try to achieve our best result.

“First of all, we need to see the weather then also the tyre choice,” he continued, looking ahead to Sundays 23-lap race. “Because this year looks like a little bit different compared to last year. It's not so clear. For me it's clear but maybe for everybody, other riders can try something different. We'll see.

"I think that Pecco [Bagnaia] is really the strongest, he has something more this year also Aleix [Espargaro] and Enea [Bastianini] are riding very well. But from that point to the P12, everybody has the same pace more or less so will be difficult. We will see with the slipstream in the straight if there is a group or if we can try to make a good start and go away from the other riders.”

With the storms overhead and the inconsistent rain, some have commented that qualifying was unsafe and should have been delayed. Marini disagrees.

“The track is difficult, is really tricky conditions but if you want to go safe, you can go slow,” he said simply. “Nobody push you to make '46.

“Is that because we are the best riders in the world and we need to perform at our best also in this condition because the other riders can do this. So you need to do this if you want to stay in front.

“This was a good opportunity for us for make a good lap time and I think that everybody can use these moments for make his best performance.”