Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin dominated Friday’s MotoGP running at the French Grand Prix as he made it a clean sweep of the opening practice sessions at Le Mans.
The Spaniard has rebounded from his crash from the lead in the last race to set a 1:30.388s in the second session, over a tenth clear of Francesco Bagnaia’s Ducati.
However, Marc Marquez was unable to progress into the top 10 places to book his passage into Q2, meaning he will have to participate in qualifying’s opening stage.
The Gresini Ducati rider endured a crash in the nascent stages, going down at Turn 12 when the front of his bike slid out from underneath him and cost him vital time.
Enea Bastianini also missed out on making the cut, 0.010s from home hero Fabio Quartararo, who somehow hauled his struggling Yamaha bike into the Q2 positions.
Brad Binder also endured trouble unlocking speed from his KTM, sustaining two crashes at Turn 13 on his first and last runs, with Jack Miller able to make the top 10.
Rookie hotshot Pedro Acosta continued his impressive start to the season as he wound up third, but GasGas KTM team-mate Augusto Fernandez languished in 16th.
Maverick Vinales was fourth on his Aprilia, with Aleix Esparago situated in seventh on the sister bike. Separating the duo were VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Miller.
Marco Bezzecchi ensured that both of the satellite Ducati VR46 riders from the side remained inside the top 10 as the pair bid to continue their momentum from Jerez.
However, it was another arduous outing for Honda, with none of the marque’s riders making it through. Johann Zarco was fastest, under one second from the benchmark.
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