French MotoGP: Jorge Martin fastest in FP1 as Pedro Acosta shines again
Jorge Martin closes out Free Practice 1 at Le Mans fastest from Pedro Acosta.
Winners of the last four grand prix at Le Mans, Ducati continued their stunning form as Marc Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi, Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia all showed a lot of pace.
Marquez led the way on several occasions as he became the first rider to set a sub 1m 32s lap.
- Marc Marquez reveals “strategy change” that led to Honda exit
- How to watch the French MotoGP practice today: Live stream here
Improved lap times came in from Enea Bastianini, Martin and Bagnaia, as the top four, led by Marquez, were split by just one tenth.
Down in 11th place, Aleix Espargaro nearly crashed at turn eight as he looked to push on.
After showing promising pace early on, home favourite Fabio Quartararo began slipping down the leaderboard.
14th, Quartararo was clear of all five other Japanese bikes who occupied the bottom five positions with nearly half the session gone.
On course to go fastest, Bastianini again lost out in sector four to Marquez who was making the difference in the final part of the lap.
The same then happened to Bezzecchi who was close to two tenths clear of Marquez heading into sector four, however, he lost all that time before Bastianini moved to the front of the field.
Bastianini then improved again to put a tenth between himself and Martin who moved ahead of Marquez for second spot.
After moving up to second, Acosta looked to have gone quickest before having his time deleted for track limits.
It was second time lucky for Acosta though, as the rookie sensation set a time of 1:31.658s to move clear of Bastianini by -0.179s.
Quartararo made a mistake late on at turn seven as he ran through the gravel after getting his braking wrong for the left-hander.
Martin reasserted Ducati’s dominance as he took the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:31.421s.
Acosta then produced a stunning save at turn six as he lost the front-end before digging his elbow into the tarmac.
Unable to replicate the GASGAS rider, factory KTM rider Brad Binder suffered a very fast fall at the end of the session.
