Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia are first and second in the MotoGP world championship standings and also at Le Mans they started the weekend by challenging for the top in the afternoon session on Friday, which designated the list of ten riders who earned direct access to Q2, not without providing some surprises.
The fastest was the world championship leader, who with his Prima Pramac Racing Ducati set the new French track record, dropping to 1’30″388. As mentioned, in his wake is the world champion in charge, who was playing it on the edge of a thousandths and in the end surrendered to the Madrilenian by just 145 thousandths of a second, he, who usually uses Fridays above all to work on the race, was an excellent start anyway.
As mentioned, however, there were also some surprises among the Ducati ranks, because among those who will have to go through Q1 tomorrow there are at least a couple of big names and these are those of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. The Rimini driver crashed at the end at turn 7, when he had just signed a red helmet at T1, and therefore found himself 11th and beaten by just 10 thousandths.
But the hottest name among those who will compete in Q1 is without a doubt that of Marc Marquez. The eight-time world champion paid dearly for a crash at turn 12 at the start of the session, which forced him to work with his second Gresini Racing GP23 with which he didn’t have the same feeling. At the end he was hindered by a couple of yellow flags and therefore had to settle for 13th time at 679 thousandths.
Going back to scroll through the rankings to talk about those who made a positive impression, we can’t help but start from Pedro Acosta, because the GasGas Tech3 rookie is proving to be very fast in France too. The Moto2 world champion was third fastest, finishing just 187 thousandths behind. Remaining in the KTM ranks, Jack Miller’s performance was also positive, sixth at 311 thousandths. Brad Binder, on the other hand, crashed twice, again at turn 13, and therefore is 17th and will have to go through Q1.
The Aprilia session was also good, with Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro both earning a pass to Q2 on a track on which they had high expectations. The driver from Roses is fourth in 1’30″683, therefore just under three tenths behind Martin, while the driver from Granollers is seventh at 326 thousandths.
The Ducati GP23s of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 are also both in Q2, with an excellent Fabio Di Giannantonio setting the fifth fastest time after also leading for several minutes after the first time attack. However, Marco Bezzecchi also seems to have confirmed the progress shown in Jerez, where he took his first podium, as he placed ninth at 397 thousandths, just behind Franco Morbidelli, who was also improving with the Prima Pramac Racing GP24.
The picture of the ten who have direct access to Q2 is completed with Fabio Quartararo, who achieved a real feat by reducing the delay of his Yamaha to just 400 thousandths, placing it in tenth place. The extent of his feat is quite clear if you think of the four tenths he gave to his teammate Alex Rins, 14th.
The Hondas are once again in great difficulty, with the first of the RC213Vs occupying 18th position with Joan Mir and the Majorcan finding himself 1.1″ behind. His teammate Luca Marini, on the other hand, is three tenths further back, in 21st position , with only the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami behind him.
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