2025 French MotoGP: Marc Marquez beats lap record to lead Practice
Marc Marquez completes Friday clean sweep at Le Mans
Marc Marquez topped second practice at the 2025 MotoGP French Grand Prix with a new lap record on his factory Ducati to complete a Friday clean sweep.
The eight-time world champion set the pace this morning in FP1 by almost 0.6s over the rest of the field, threatening the strong form he would show in the hour-long afternoon session.
Leading the session early on, Marc Marquez would post a 1m29.855s to set a new lap record on his way to top spot at the chequered flag.
He led the way by 0.177s over an impressive Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha, as he carries on the form he showed at the Spanish GP two weeks ago.
Pecco Bagnaia completed the top three and was within 0.2s of team-mate Marc Marquez at the end of a promising Friday for the double world champion.
Championship leader Alex Marquez was fifth in Practice, but was second-last of the six Ducatis.
Quartararo set the early pace inside the opening 10 minutes of Practice with a 1m30.997s, which was bettered a further 10 minutes later by Marc Marquez with a 1m30.886s.
He improved on this to a 1m30.530s with 35 minutes to go, which stood as the benchmark for some time as the field worked on race set-up.
With around 10 minutes to go, Quartararo took his Yamaha fitted with a fresh soft rear to top spot with a 1m30.222s.
But just behind him, Marc Marquez was lighting up the timing screens on a new soft and broke the lap record with a 1m29.855s.
He elected against a second soft tyre run at the end of the session, with that time going unchallenged through to the chequered flag.
Quartararo cemented second with his final lap of 1m30.032s to be Marquez’s nearest challenger, which also denied Ducati a 1-2.
Bagnaia was 0.184s off his team-mate Marc Marquez in third, while Fermin Aldeguer bested his Gresini team-mate Alex Marquez in fourth.
Jack Miller ensured two Yamahas through to Q2 in sixth for Pramac, while Pedro Acosta led the KTM charge in seventh ahead of Tech3’s Maverick Vinales - who crashed late on at Turn 9.
Franco Morbidelli was ninth on the VR46-run GP24 Ducati, while Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi snatched the final direct Q2 spot in 10th.
This came at the expense of Honda’s Luca Marini, who was denied a place in the top 10 by 0.053s.
A crash for home hero Johann Zarco for LCR Honda left him in the Q1 places in 12th ahead of Enea Bastianini and Joan Mir, who also crashed his Honda late on.
Trackhouse Aprilia’s Ai Ogura was another faller in the session in 16th, while a tumble in the latter stages for KTM’s Brad Binder left him 19th.
