Italian Pecco Bagnaia will start on pole at the French GP of MotoGP after marking the reference time in Q2. With a time of 1:30.450, the Ducati rider not only achieved the best possible starting position, but also broke the Le Mans absolute record, a time that has been lowered throughout the previous sessions. Jack Miller after taking a wheel from his partner was second, while Aleix Espargaró will accompany the two men from the Borgo Panigale firm in the front row.
If in free practice the absolute record of the track was already pulverized, in the decisive Q2 the best lap record of Le Mans was lowered again. Before that, Q1 gave away an interesting and beautiful duel between Joan Mir and Jorge Martín for getting the best time, although both looked set to lose one of the two tickets for Q2 before the push of the Italian Marco Bezzechi. There was no need to lament ‘wounded’ and Jorge Martin finished first with a time of 1:30.804. Joan Mir was one tenth behind, with Bezzechi seven thousandths behind the Spaniard.
Arriving at Q2, the La Sarthe circuit was dyed red, despite attempts from the stands to get local hero Fabio Quartararo to pole position. Nevertheless, Ducati imposed its law and with an inspired Pecco Bagnaia achieved a fabulous double. In the end, Pecco not only took pole with a time of 1:30.450, but also in his best lap ‘pulled’ Jack Miller to take the Australian to second position on the grid. The distance between the two at the end of Q2 was only 69 thousandths.
Aleix Espargaró became a travel companion for the Ducati men by finishing third and claim a front row of the grid unthinkable minutes before, when he went down in FP4. In fact, Aleix signed a great classification to beat Fabio Quartararo, fourth to the disappointment of his audience. For his part, Enea Bastianini took fifth place, which left the other Frenchman on the grid, Johann Zarco, in sixth place. Joan Mir, Álex Rins and Jorge Martin, with some problems on the bike, took over the third row of the grid.
For its part, the fourth starting line was taken over by the Honda pilots. Despite the good work of the two factory team drivers and the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami, none of the three had a real chance of getting into more advanced positions. Occupying the last three places in Q2, Marc Márquez will start in tenth position, just ahead of Pol Espargaró and the aforementioned Takaaki Nakagami. Perhaps the words of Márquez in which he assures that he is not here to fight for the World Cup are based on these types of results.
Photos: Ducati