Celebrating his new two-year deal with Aprilia, which was announced on Thursday, Espargaro guided his RS-GP - which in FP2 was powered by a new engine - to top spot with a 1m45.891s.
He was shadowed by the factory Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia on a 1m45.940s, who led an onslaught of Ducatis consisting of team-mate Jack Miller, Pramac's Johann Zarco, VR46's Luca Marini and Gresini's Enea Bastianini.
Zarco's day on his Pramac Ducati decked out in new colours was not without incident, as the Frenchman crashed twice during FP2 - his first tumble leading to a brief red flag stoppage.
Brad Binder was seventh on his factory KTM, while team-mate Miguel Oliveira - who was 14th overall - confirmed to the media that KTM has offered him a potential demotion to Tech3 for 2023.
Marco Bezzecchi ensured six of the nine Ducatis present at Mugello this weekend were inside the top 10 at the end of Friday's running, as the VR46 rider was eighth ahead of championship leader Fabio Quartararo.
The Yamaha rider and 2021 Mugello winner was left somewhat despondent on Friday as he felt his bike was completely "opposite" to how it was last season at the Italian GP venue.
Pol Espargaro completed the top 10 on his Honda as team-mate Marc Marquez was 12th having spent the day testing a new chassis.
Practice continues on Saturday for the 2022 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix on Saturday morning at 9:55am local time (8:55 BST) before qualifying takes place at 2:10pm local time (1:10pm BST).
2022 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix: Full Friday practice results
FP1 results:
| Cla | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap | Interval | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Takaaki Nakagami |  | Honda | 1'46.662 | ||
| 2 |  Aleix Espargaro |  | Aprilia | 1'47.070 | 0.408 | 0.408 |
| 3 |  Francesco Bagnaia |  | Ducati | 1'47.070 | 0.408 | 0.000 |
| 4 | Alex Rins |  | Suzuki | 1'47.071 | 0.409 | 0.001 |
| 5 | Enea Bastianini |  | Ducati | 1'47.186 | 0.524 | 0.115 |
| 6 | Maverick Viñales |  | Aprilia | 1'47.191 | 0.529 | 0.005 |
| 7 |  Jack Miller |  | Ducati | 1'47.315 | 0.653 | 0.124 |
| 8 | Pol Espargaro |  | Honda | 1'47.367 | 0.705 | 0.052 |
| 9 |  Johann Zarco | Ducati | 1'47.367 | 0.705 | 0.000 | |
| 10 | Luca Marini |  | Ducati | 1'47.383 | 0.721 | 0.016 |
| 11 | Fabio Quartararo |  | Yamaha | 1'47.393 | 0.731 | 0.010 |
| 12 | Michele Pirro | Ducati | 1'47.432 | 0.770 | 0.039 | |
| 13 | Alex Marquez |  | Honda | 1'47.562 | 0.900 | 0.130 |
| 14 | Marco Bezzecchi |  | Ducati | 1'47.584 | 0.922 | 0.022 |
| 15 | Joan Mir |  | Suzuki | 1'47.658 | 0.996 | 0.074 |
| 16 | Franco Morbidelli |  | Yamaha | 1'47.727 | 1.065 | 0.069 |
| 17 |  Brad Binder |  | KTM | 1'47.746 | 1.084 | 0.019 |
| 18 |  Miguel Oliveira |  | KTM | 1'47.820 | 1.158 | 0.074 |
| 19 | Marc Marquez |  | Honda | 1'47.875 | 1.213 | 0.055 |
| 20 | Jorge Martin | Ducati | 1'47.903 | 1.241 | 0.028 | |
| 21 | Andrea Dovizioso |  | Yamaha | 1'48.078 | 1.416 | 0.175 |
| 22 | Lorenzo Savadori |  | Aprilia | 1'48.253 | 1.591 | 0.175 |
| 23 | Fabio Di Giannantonio |  | Ducati | 1'48.335 | 1.673 | 0.082 |
| 24 | Darryn Binder |  | Yamaha | 1'48.910 | 2.248 | 0.575 |
| 25 | Raúl Fernández |  | KTM | 1'48.911 | 2.249 | 0.001 |
| 26 | Remy Gardner |  | KTM | 1'48.960 | 2.298 | 0.049 |
| View full results | ||||||
FP2 results:
| Cla | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap | Interval | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleix Espargaro | | Aprilia | 1'45.891 | ||
| 2 | Francesco Bagnaia |  | Ducati | 1'45.940 | 0.049 | 0.049 |
| 3 | Jack Miller |  | Ducati | 1'46.313 | 0.422 | 0.373 |
| 4 | Johann Zarco | Ducati | 1'46.349 | 0.458 | 0.036 | |
| 5 | Luca Marini |  | Ducati | 1'46.362 | 0.471 | 0.013 |
| 6 | Enea Bastianini |  | Ducati | 1'46.395 | 0.504 | 0.033 |
| 7 | Brad Binder |  | KTM | 1'46.439 | 0.548 | 0.044 |
| 8 | Marco Bezzecchi |  | Ducati | 1'46.473 | 0.582 | 0.034 |
| 9 | Fabio Quartararo |  | Yamaha | 1'46.519 | 0.628 | 0.046 |
| 10 | Pol Espargaro | | Honda | 1'46.618 | 0.727 | 0.099 |
| 11 | Jorge Martin | Ducati | 1'46.629 | 0.738 | 0.011 | |
| 12 | Marc Marquez |  | Honda | 1'46.658 | 0.767 | 0.029 |
| 13 | Alex Rins |  | Suzuki | 1'46.663 | 0.772 | 0.005 |
| 14 | Miguel Oliveira |  | KTM | 1'46.818 | 0.927 | 0.155 |
| 15 | Takaaki Nakagami | | Honda | 1'46.852 | 0.961 | 0.034 |
| 16 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | | Ducati | 1'46.915 | 1.024 | 0.063 |
| 17 | Maverick Viñales | | Aprilia | 1'47.053 | 1.162 | 0.138 |
| 18 | Alex Marquez | | Honda | 1'47.151 | 1.260 | 0.098 |
| 19 | Joan Mir |  | Suzuki | 1'47.269 | 1.378 | 0.118 |
| 20 | Franco Morbidelli | | Yamaha | 1'47.468 | 1.577 | 0.199 |
| 21 | Andrea Dovizioso |  | Yamaha | 1'47.583 | 1.692 | 0.115 |
| 22 | Remy Gardner | | KTM | 1'47.684 | 1.793 | 0.101 |
| 23 | Darryn Binder |  | Yamaha | 1'47.687 | 1.796 | 0.003 |
| 24 | Michele Pirro | Ducati | 1'47.726 | 1.835 | 0.039 | |
| 25 | Raúl Fernández |  | KTM | 1'47.998 | 2.107 | 0.272 |
| 26 | Lorenzo Savadori |  | Aprilia | 1'48.088 | 2.197 | 0.090 |
| View full results | ||||||
