2025 French MotoGP: Fabio Quartararo denies Marc Marquez for home pole
Back-to-back MotoGP poles for Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo snatched a second successive MotoGP pole from Marc Marquez with a new lap record in a thrilling French Grand Prix qualifying.
Having topped Friday with a new all-time lap record, Marc Marquez looked like he would be hard to beat for pole when qualifying got underway.
Sitting on top with a new lap record as the session ticked through its final seconds, Fabio Quartararo produced a sensational final lap of 1m29.324s to snatch top spot by 0.118s.
Ending a pole drought dating back to 2022 last time out in Spain, Quartararo had to wait just two weeks for another in almost identical circumstances to Jerez.
Championship leader Alex Marquez completed the top three on his Gresini Ducati, while Pecco Bagnaia was sixth on the sister factory team Ducati.
Marc Marquez set the benchmark at 1m30.065s on his opening lap of the 15-minute Q2, which was the fourth-best time of the weekend at that point.
He followed that up with a new all-time lap record of 1m29.442s to go almost seven tenths clear of the field.
Quartararo was the first to challenge this, getting Ducati rider Marquez’s advantage down to 0.361s, and then again to 0.350s to end his first run.
Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer put in a 1m29.776s with just under four minutes to go to jump up to second, but couldn’t advance on this time as he crashed at Turn 3 just seconds later.
With just under two minutes to go, Alex Marquez almost dethroned his older brother with a 1m29.571s.
Marc Marquez couldn’t improve on his penultimate lap, while Quartararo produced a 1m29.324s on his final attempt to snatch pole.
Marquez did get across the line in time to start one more lap and was fast through sector one, before rolling out of it.
Aldeguer’s crash proved costly as he was shuffled off the front row into fourth ahead of Tech3 KTM’s Maverick Vinales.
Bagnaia completed row two, 0.723s off pole position, while Marco Bezzecchi was seventh on his factory Aprilia.
Jack Miller was 0.867s off Quartararo’s time on the Pramac-run Yamaha, with Franco Morbidelli ninth for VR46 Ducati despite a late crash.
Raul Fernandez came through Q1 on his Trackhouse Aprilia to qualify 10th, while a late crash for Q1 pacesetter Johann Zarco left the LCR Honda rider 11th.
Pedro Acosta was 12th on his factory KTM, with team-mate Brad Binder narrowly missing a Q2 place by 0.010s.
A crash for Ai Ogura led to a brief red flag in Q1. The Japanese rider was unharmed and rejoined the session to qualify 19th for Trackhouse.
