Jorge Martin, Pramac Ducati rider, showed his dominance in the MotoGP practice sessions on Friday at the French Grand Prix. He managed a clean sweep in the opening sessions in Le Mans, recovering from his crash in the previous race. In the second session, Martin set an impressive time of 1:30.388s, over a tenth faster than Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati. Unfortunately, Marc Marquez failed to secure a spot in the top 10, meaning he will have to participate in the initial qualifying phase.
Early in the session, Gresini Ducati rider Marc Marquez suffered a crash at Turn 12. His bike slipped from under him, resulting in lost time. Enea Bastianini also missed out on qualifying, falling just 0.010s short. Surprisingly, local hero Fabio Quartararo managed to secure a spot in Q2, despite struggling with his Yamaha bike.
Brad Binder struggled to extract speed from his KTM, suffering two crashes at Turn 13 on his first and final laps. On the other hand, Jack Miller managed to secure a spot in the top 10.
Impressive rookie sensation Pedro Acosta continued to impress with a third-place finish, while his GasGas KTM teammate Augusto Fernandez struggled and finished in 16th place. Maverick Vinales claimed fourth place on his Aprilia, with Aleix Esparago in seventh on the sister bike. VR46 rider Fabio Di Giannantonio and Miller were positioned between the two Aprilia riders.
Marco Bezzecchi ensured that both riders from the Ducati VR46 satellite team remained within the top 10, aiming to maintain their momentum from Jerez. However, Honda had another challenging outing, with none of their riders advancing to the next qualifying phase. Johann Zarco was the fastest rider, less than a second off the benchmark time.
