The fight to get directly into Q2 of tomorrow morning’s MotoGP French Grand Prix was really tight, with the rain grace the second free practice session, giving rise to a fiery finale, which was a real red helmet festival.
However, it starts from a confirmation because, just like this morning, Jack Miller hoisted himself in front of everyone. The KTM Australian was also the only one capable of breaking the 1’31” barrier, stopping the clock on a 1’30″950 which kept his RC16 at the top of both the FP2 and cumulative standings .
Despite a crash in the early stages at turn 9, Aleix Espargaro made a big step forward instead. The rider from Granollers brought his Aprilia to second position, only 119 thousandths behind Miller. The Noale-based company, which today brought back the wings on the fork that had been seen in the pre-season, also brought Maverick Vinales to Q2, author of the sixth fastest time at 0.392 seconds.
Between the two RS-GPs there is a Ducati trio led by the one with the Mooney VR46 colors entrusted to Marco Bezzecchi, who finished two tenths off the pace. Following are the two of Prima Pramac Racing, with Jorge Martin, one of the many riders who crashed at turn 7, who got the better of the landlord Johann Zarco: the two Desmosedici GPs of Paolo Campinoti’s team are separated from each other by just 41 thousandths.
For the moment, the other KTM rider, the South African Brad Binder, seems to be in a bit more difficulty, even if we certainly cannot complain about a seventh time four tenths off the lead, which in fact confirms the step made by the Austrian manufacturer also on a track other than Jerez, where many had attributed the possibility of having tested on that track with Dani Pedrosa to his competitiveness. Something that didn’t happen this time in France.
In eighth position, Marc Marquez managed to gain direct access to Q2, even if his session was not easy. The eight-times world champion seems to have promoted the Kalex chassis, also using it in FP2, but in the final stages he also ran into a rather disastrous crash at turn 9. The fact remains that, despite having been stopped since the first race of the year, he was the only Honda rider to enter Q2, with Alex Rins finding himself 13th and Joan Mir who crashed even in 18th position as well as crashing at turn 7.
Under the heading complicated session, one cannot fail to mention Pecco Bagnaia. The world champion doesn’t seem to have managed to find the ideal balance for his Ducati, alternating between a longer and a shorter bike. Only under the checkered flag was he able to set a 1’31″467 which took him to ninth position and then to Q2, but the feeling is that there is a lot of work to do in his garage for tomorrow. then Alex Marquez is the last to hit it, despite a crash at turn 7.
It didn’t go so well for Luca Marini. After being very fast in FP1 this morning, the Mooney VR46 rider was unable to improve as much as the competition and finds himself 11th and in Q1 by just 3 thousandths. The two Yamahas were also excluded from Q2, with Fabio Quartararo 12th also on his home track, trailing by seven tenths, and Franco Morbidelli even 16th after a crash at turn 14 in the early stages. “El Diablo” didn’t hide a certain nervousness, because it was evident that he was already at the limit, given the fair number of aborted attempts after a few too many mistakes in braking.
Among the excluded then there is also Fabio Di Giannantonio, 17th, as well as Danilo Petrucci and Lorenzo Savadori. The “Petrux”, returning to the factory Ducati in place of the injured Enea Bastianini, saw his gap from the front grow to two seconds, also slipping at turn 7. The Aprilia test rider, who replaces Miguel Oliveira at RNF Racing, is crashed at turn 11 and is 21st at 2″5. Augusto Fernandez also crashed at turn 4, 14th with the GasGas Tech3 KTM.
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