Johann Zarco fastest in France MotoGP Practice, Marc Marquez in Q1
Johann Zarco led Friday’s Practice at the French Grand Prix, as Marc Marquez suffered a disaster
LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco led a tense Practice at the MotoGP French Grand Prix, as Marc Marquez fell into Q1 after getting caught out by late yellow flags.
Honda has enjoyed a strong opening day at Le Mans, with Luca Marini leading FP1, before Johann Zarco set the best pace of the day in Practice.
Last year’s French Grand Prix winner shot to the top of the order for the first time with just over 15 minutes of the hour-long session remaining.
He then improved in the dying stages to a 1m29.907s. That lap put him just 0.010s clear of the field, with VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio his nearest challenger.
The tight session saw top spot change hands repeatedly, particularly late on when everyone switched to fresh soft rear rubber.
Just 0.816s covered the top 19 in the session, with 0.289s the difference covering the top 10.
The major story of the afternoon session was Marc Marquez, who missed out on a place in Q2.
The reigning world champion, who switched to 2025-spec aero on his factory Ducati, was on for a top 10 lap in the closing moments before making a mistake on his penultimate effort.
As he started his final flying lap, Ducati team-mate Pecco Bagnaia crashed in front of him at Turn 6, bringing out yellow flags.
This ended Marquez’s hopes of advancing to Q2, with Bagnaia safely through after ending the session third.
Spanish Grand Prix winner Alex Marquez was fourth on the Gresini Ducati with an identical 1m30.045s to Bagnaia, while Honda’s Joan Mir was fifth.
Jorge Martin brushed off a crash early on to go sixth on the first of the Aprilias ahead of championship leader Marco Bezzecchi.
Alex Rins stunned in eighth on the factory Yamaha to bag a direct Q2 place, while Ai Ogura (Trackhouse) and Pedro Acosta (KTM), who had a crash, completed the top 10.
Marc Marquez will face a tough Q1 session on Saturday morning, with the likes of Enea Bastianini (Tech3), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and Luca Marini joining him.
Fernandez had a scary moment in Practice when one of his satellite Aprilia’s burst into flames, though he was unarmed.
Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer was the only other faller in the session.
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