Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales went fastest in MotoGP’s 30-minute final practice session at the French Grand Prix, as half a second covered an ever-tightening field.
Vinales clocked a 1:31.105s to claim top spot with 0.072s in hand over Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, who claimed the spoils with the victory last time out in Jerez.
Bagnaia’s team-mate Enea Bastianini, who will have to fight in Q1 to secure a higher place on the grid, placed third on the times, two-tenths behind the benchmark.
Jorge Martin was unable to make it three practice sessions in a row that he fronted the timesheets, but the Pramac rider still impressed to wind up fourth overall.
Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 8 after running wide onto the kerb, but the Spaniard recovered to rise to fifth place, leading brother and team-mate Marc in sixth place.
Aleix Espargaro was next up in seventh on the Aprilia, with Jack Miller the lead KTM in eighth. Raul Fernandez and Franco Morbidelli rounded out the top 10 spots.
The GasGas KTM duo was situated on the fringes as Pedro Acosta edged Augusto Fernandez, while Fabio Di Giannantonio led home hero Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha.
Miguel Oliveira came next in 15th, ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi. Takaaki Nakagami was the lead Honda representative in 18th position.
Joan Mir was 19th, eight-tenths down on Vinales’ pacesetting time, with Yamaha’s Alex Rins and LCR’s Johann Zarco responsible for splitting the two factory Hondas.
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