Le Mans MotoGP qualifying
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Thank you for tuning in to our live coverage of the qualifying, make sure to come back for tomorrow's race, which is set to be a thriller with rain potentially mixing things up again.
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Petrucci: "I am really happy because the track is really difficult in this moment, is not really wet but unfortunately is not dry. The team made a good strategy, I go out on track first and I was able to push immediately with medium tyre. It was first very good qualifying with the factory team and I really miss to start in the front row, I think we can make a good race for tomorrow."
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Miller: "Difficult. The conditions were the best probably on the first lap and I was just trying to manage it the best I could to make the laptime then, but I made a small mistake in the chicane at the end of the backstraight. I was just trying to do the laptime at the end there and it caught me out at Turn 1."
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Marquez: "Today was one of those difficult days because with these conditions it is quite difficult but anyway we just try to be concentrated, we knew the first lap was a good one because was less water on the track. Then I had a small crash but I keep riding to try to understand for tomorrow. Happy for the result, still a few things to improve on the bike but anyway, we just need to wait for the weather and we will try to do a great race in front of all these French fans."
Quartararo looks quite upset with 10th, looks like he expected a lot better as well.
This is Marquez's 55th pole position in MotoGP, he now has as many as Rossi!
Information
Q2 results: 1 Marquez; 2 Petrucci; 3 Miller; 4 Dovizioso; 5 Rossi; 6 Morbidelli; 7 Nakagami; 8 Lorenzo; 9 A. Espargaro; 10 Quartararo; 11 Vinales; 12 P. Espargaro.
Disaster for Vinales, who was fastest in the dry and in the wet up until FP3, but he bizarrely takes only 11th in qualifying.
He will start ahead of three Ducatis in the order of Petrucci, Miller and Dovizioso.
Checkered flag
Time is up, Marc Marquez takes pole position for the French Grand Prix!
Crash
Nakagami is the fourth rider to go off in Q2.
Small improvement from Rossi, he goes fifth.
It looks like this may be it. Still two minutes remaining, but track conditions don't look good.
Crash
Miller also goes down!
Lorenzo up to seventh.
Crash
Pol Espargaro crashed at Turn 6.
Not a lot of improvements happening at the moment. Dovizioso gained one place over Morbidelli for fourth. The factory Yamahas of Rossi and Vinales are only seventh and 10th.
Marquez did not pit after his crash, his bike seems to have survived the accident without any damages.
The Yamahas are only setting their first fast laps now after their early gambles did not pay off.
Information
The top five currently is Marquez, Petrucci, Miller, Morbidelli and Dovizioso, with seven minutes on the clock.
Marquez re-fired his bike and is going again. He's still leading by 0.360s with Petrucci taking second from Miller.
Marquez's bike got unsettled already at Turn 5 on the kerbs and he just slid through the long T6 right-hander, eventually falling off his bike.
Crash
Marquez crashes at Turn 6!
Stopwatch
Meanwhile Marquez takes the lead with a 1m40.952s, four tenths ahead of Miller.
That suspicion is confirmed as Quartararo and Rossi both pit after just one lap, switching for wets.
But it seems to be raining a little bit more than before, which could prove detrimental for the Yamahas.
Vinales also copied his teammate's strategy, Morbidelli is the only Yamaha on wets.
Rossi is again the exception, and so is Quartararo. Both on soft slicks.
Q2 begins, the field is on wets.
t.co/Kd3Wr7avXp"/>No substitute for experience! 😎 @ValeYellow46's inspired tyre decision sees him through to Q2, joined by @FrankyMorbido12! 👊 #FrenchGP 🇫🇷 t.co/Kd3Wr7avXp
It will be interesting to see the tyre choices of the riders. Only Rossi made the slicks work in Q1 - if someone can do the same in Q2, that may very well be pole position.
Information
Q2 field: Dovizioso; Petrucci; Vinales; Quartararo; Nakagami; A. Espargaro; Miller; P. Espargaro; Marquez; Lorenzo; Rossi; Morbidelli.
That was rather genius from Rossi. His gamble on slicks not only paid off, it made everyone else change their tyres but nobody got even close to his laptime.
Information
Q1 results: 1 Rossi; 2 Morbidelli; 3 Bagnaia; 4 Zarco; 5 Crutchlow; 6 Oliveira; 7 Abraham; 8 Mir; 9 Rins; 10 Rabat; 11 Syahrin; 12 Iannone.
That's it, Rossi and Morbidelli advance to Q2! Crutchlow and Rins will start only 15th and 19th.
Rins improves but stays ninth.
Crash
Oliveira crashes as the chequered flag falls.
Only two minutes to go, some riders are on slicks, some on wets, some in the pits changing tyres. It's chaos and nobody can improve.
Rossi also pitted, he probably won't rejoin the track as his lead over third place is 2.3s.
Now that everyone is on slicks, nobody is able to improve. Rins is in the pits and switches back to wets. This is not looking good for the Suzuki man.
By: Matt Beer
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