Fabio Quartararo delights home fans with Le Mans p...

Fabio Quartararo set himself up for an ideal residence race weekend by snatching a second consecutive MotoGP pole place from Marc Marquez at Le Mans on Saturday morning.

The Yamaha rider repeated his Jerez efficiency by defeating the manufacturing facility Ducati truthful and sq. in Q2.

Alex Marquez will begin third for Gresini Ducati, whereas Francesco Bagnaia might solely handle sixth on the second manufacturing facility Ducati.

Earlier, Q1 was interrupted after 5 minutes when Ai Ogura’s stricken Aprilia proved powerful to retrieve from the gravel lure at Chemin aux Boeufs, the place the Japanese rider had fallen. Whereas he was unhurt and departed the scene quick, his engine stayed operating regardless of the bike mendacity on its aspect. Ogura was the truth is again within the storage earlier than his bike was cleared!

That left 10 minutes on the clock when the session restarted. This was successfully solely sufficient time for one qualifying run, so most riders waited a pair extra minutes earlier than heading out for his or her single assault.

The house followers breathed a sigh of reduction when Johann Zarco hit the highest of the timing screens with three minutes to go. The French LCR Honda rider had missed out on direct passage into Q2 following a late fall in observe on Friday. The 34-year-old was in a position to maintain his place atop the leaderboard till the top of the session and guarantee he would be a part of countryman Quartararo within the battle for pole.

Becoming a member of him in Q2 was an sudden companion in Raul Fernandez. Ogura’s team-mate has had a wretched 2025 to date however had proven indicators of a breakthrough on Friday. This was confirmed in Q1 because the Spaniard obtained inside three hundredths of Zarco to assert second-fastest time forward of extra fancied candidates, together with the manufacturing facility Hondas of Joan Mir and Luca Marini, VR46 Ducati rider Fabio di Giannantonio and KTM’s Brad Binder.

As at Jerez two weeks in the past, Marc Marquez threw down the gauntlet within the first a part of Q2. His 1m29.442s lap shattered the brand new lap report he had set on Friday – and the perfect preliminary response was greater than three tenths away from Marc’s mark. This got here from Quartararo, who led Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer because the riders returned to the pits to seize recent delicate rears for the ultimate run.

At this level, Bagnaia was down in eleventh, over a second off the tempo regardless of no clearly seen problem.

However in one other repeat of Jerez, Quartararo was in a position to higher Marquez’s early benchmark with a exceptional pole lap within the second section. The house hero hit the entrance along with his final tour of the session, and Marquez was unable to enhance on the one flying lap he had remaining.

Aldeguer popped forward of Alex Marquez early within the remaining section however then fell on the first nook of his subsequent flying lap, permitting his Gresini team-mate to reclaim third place and return to the entrance row after lacking it for the primary time in 2025 at Jerez.

Bagnaia was in a position to stage solely a restricted restoration within the remaining a part of qualifying, touchdown up in sixth place. The Italian was greater than seven tenths away from pole place.

Between Aldeguer and Bagnaia on row two will likely be Maverick Vinales, who continues to guide the KTM assault.

Row three will likely be made up of three riders who went in opposition to the grain and set their instances on onerous entrance tyres: Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia), Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) and Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati).

Whereas the Le Mans devoted had one Frenchman to have fun on the very prime of the leaderboard, they had been to be disillusioned by Zarco. The Cannes native had one other fall in Q2 and will solely handle eleventh.

Zarco will line up between Fernandez and Pedro Acosta (KTM) on the fourth row, with the latter qualifying twelfth for a 3rd consecutive time.

French Grand Prix Q2 outcomes

Photographs from French GP – Apply & Qualifying