MotoGP Le Mans: Francesco Bagnaia steals pole away from Marc Marquez

Francesco Bagnaia will start the Sprint and main Grand Prix from pole after narrowly getting the better of Marc Marquez. 
Francesco Bagnaia, MotoGP, French MotoGP, 13 May
Francesco Bagnaia, MotoGP, French MotoGP, 13 May

Maverick Vinales set the benchmark time to begin Q2 🎉before going even quicker with a time of 1:31.256s.

🐟Jack Miller, who had been the rider to beat for much of the weekend, narrowly missed out on taking provisional pole.

The KTM rider slot🔴ted in second spot - +0.026s behind Vinales be⛦fore Jorge Martin went fastest for Pramac Ducati. 

Keen to secure his first pole since Assen 2021, Vinales responded immediatel♉y with a time of 1:31.120s.

In contention through the opening three sectors, Marquez found time on Vinales in the final part ꦬof the lap in order to move into second spot.

As he attempted to exit pit lane, Vinales’ bid for pole was thought to be ruined by hꦜis RS-GP23 running into a tec♛hnical issue.

Vinales was aided by Aprilia mechanics as he got ꦏback to the garage, before jumping on his second bike with just over two mi꧂nutes to go.

On-track, Vinales’s teammate was out of conꦚtention as Aleix Espar꧟garo suffered a very fast fall at turn one. 

Following Martin closely, Marquez set a sensational lap to go two ꦇtenths clear of an♈yone.

A lap 🌃that was the fastest of the weekend and seemingly out of reach for his competitors, was instead beaten by Bagnaia as the world champion gained time in the final sector.

Disappointment for Fabio Quartararo in MotoGP Q1 at Le Mans

Fabio Quartararo, MotoGP, French MotoGP, 13 May
Fabio Quartararo, MotoGP, French MotoGP, 13 May

While Luca Marini and Q꧙uartararo would have been considered the favourites t🉐o advance from Q1, plenty of others including Alex Rins and Joan Mir were looking to spoil the party. 

Using a soft-soft combination on the fr🐽ont and rear, Marini se✱t a banker lap of 1:33.637s to go quickest, however, Franco Morbidelli went six tenths faster.

That was before Quartararo blasted to the top 🥂of the leaderboard thanks to🎉 the first sub 1m 32s lap of the session. 

Quartararo then improved by over half a second to move well clear of Mir and Morbidelli. Marini managed to slide into s🦋⛄econd with his final lap of the opening stint, however, the deficit facing Marini was still over four tenths. 

Fast throughout the practice sessions, Augusto F🃏ernandez shocked the riders ahead of him by going quickest thanks to a sensational final sector. 

Despite closing the deficit to Fernandez on his penultimate lap of the sꦡession, Quartararo failed to improve with his final effort as Marini instead went top.

Marini’s l🐽ap, along with Fernandez remaining in second, resulted in Quartararo being bumped down to third which is 13th on the grid for both races.

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