Le Mans MotoGP qualifying
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And that'll be that for us today, as Johann Zarco embarrassed the works Yamahas once more and extended a scarcely-believable front row streak in the best possible fashion.
But, as nobody knows just how strong that 2019-spec KTM will be, he still rea;;y needs that race win this year with this proven Tech 3 Yamaha package.
Will he thrive under pressure and deliver a dream home victory tomorrow? Or can MotoGP's top works bikes (or, perhaps, Pramac's Danilo Petrucci) crash the party?
But, as nobody knows just how strong that 2019-spec KTM will be, he still rea;;y needs that race win this year with this proven Tech 3 Yamaha package.
Will he thrive under pressure and deliver a dream home victory tomorrow? Or can MotoGP's top works bikes (or, perhaps, Pramac's Danilo Petrucci) crash the party?
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Zarco: "Feels great, big emotion. I didn't expect to have this high emotion already in qualifying. For sure I wanted to be fast, but fast like that, the 31.1, I've been surprised on the bike to read it on my dashboard.
"First exit was already quite good, but I felt that the new tyre on the first lap can bring even something more, and on the second exit I tried to use it, and pretty happy that it worked well.
"Happy here in Le Mans that the work we do, when we do a step forward with the bike, with the set-up, it's working with new and used tyres, so that's positive for the race tomorrow.
"Thank you to the crowd, I think they can bring me a lot of positive energy and let's see tomorrow if this energy is good enough to win."
"First exit was already quite good, but I felt that the new tyre on the first lap can bring even something more, and on the second exit I tried to use it, and pretty happy that it worked well.
"Happy here in Le Mans that the work we do, when we do a step forward with the bike, with the set-up, it's working with new and used tyres, so that's positive for the race tomorrow.
"Thank you to the crowd, I think they can bring me a lot of positive energy and let's see tomorrow if this energy is good enough to win."
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Marquez: "Of course we give everything in qualifying, we know that the laptime, I expect that was already fast enough, 31.3, but then I saw Johann that was even faster than me, 31.1, was unbelievable, even like this I tried to push on the third lap, and I was able to be faster, but not enough.
"I did a mistake on sector 2, but anyway he deserved the pole, he was so fast. For tomorrow we will see - I think we have a very equal pace, three or four riders, and will be tough to be in the podium but we will try.
"I did a mistake on sector 2, but anyway he deserved the pole, he was so fast. For tomorrow we will see - I think we have a very equal pace, three or four riders, and will be tough to be in the podium but we will try.
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Petrucci: "Very very important, the qualifying in MotoGP right now, because since yesterday and this morning I got a very good race pace, but this morning when I put the new tyre, I didn't feel so good. So I was very very angry, and in FP4 I say 'okay now I push my best'.
"And we found something interesting. And in fact I did my best laptime with used tyres. Then in Q1 was only to put everything together.
"Very very happy, because coming from Q1 is always very difficult, but in MotoGP I learned that you never have to give up. Tomorrow my starting position is good and for sure to be in the front is good, because I'm not a very good starter."
"And we found something interesting. And in fact I did my best laptime with used tyres. Then in Q1 was only to put everything together.
"Very very happy, because coming from Q1 is always very difficult, but in MotoGP I learned that you never have to give up. Tomorrow my starting position is good and for sure to be in the front is good, because I'm not a very good starter."
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This will be Zarco's ninth consecutive front row start, which really is a bit mad.
This is Zarco's fourth premier-class pole position. His previous three yielded race finishes of 14th, eighth and eighth - but going by his race pace simulations there's every reason to believe he can do much better tomorrow.
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The top nine have all lapped below Jorge Lorenzo's previous pole record of 1m31.975s. Zarco's smashed it by eight tenths.
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Q2 results: 1 Zarco; 2 Marquez; 3 Petrucci; 4 Iannone; 5 Dovizioso; 6 Lorenzo; 7 Miller; 8 Vinales; 9 Rossi; 10 Pedrosa; 11 Rabat; 12 A Espargaro.
But he doesn't quite manage it, meaning Johann Zarco will start the French Grand Prix from pole position!
Make that a tenth down after three sectors.
Marquez is a quarter of a second down after two sectors.
As it stands, it's a Zarco, Marquez, Petrucci front row.
Checkered flag
But Vinales, Iannone and Marquez have all made it across the finish line right before the chequered flag, so they'll have another go at denying Zarco here.
Stopwatch
Johann Zarco! 1m31.185s! The crowd erupts.
Zarco is sure giving it a good go - with a minute left on the clock, he's up on Marquez's lap through the first two sectors.
Stopwatch
But that didn't last very long at all. 1m31.315s from Marquez, who was spectacular over the last two sectors. Good luck beating that.
Stopwatch
Lorenzo to P1, 1m31.590s!
Vinales is being followed by Iannone right now, but given the current pace of the works Yamahas Iannone might want to reconsider that.
Miller is following Marquez.
Miller is following Marquez.
Four minutes to go, Espargaro is now circulating on his other bike and will kick off the second runs in anger.
If this holds - and it probably won't, but let us daydream for a second - that'll be one special front row. Two privateers and a rider for a manufacturer that has looked well slower than its three main rivals this weekend.
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Current order: 1 Zarco; 2 Petrucci; 3 Iannone; 4 Marquez; 5 Lorenzo; 6 Dovizioso; 7 Rabat; 8 Rossi; 9 Vinales; 10 Miller; 11 Pedrosa; 12 A Espargaro.
The conditions must be different enough from the morning to hinder the works Yamahas, because they're looking downright poor. Eighth for Rossi, ninth for Vinales at the moment.
Stopwatch
Petrucci takes the top spot from Marquez, only for Zarco to edge him seconds later. 1m31.645s as it stands.
Stopwatch
Marquez goes to first place with a 1m31.893s effort.
Crash
Aleix Espargaro has gone down at Turn 2, his bike left in the middle of the track. He's jogging back to pitlane now.
And it doesn't - Zarco punches in a 1m32.082, Lorenzo goes 0.005s slower.
Dani Pedrosa sets the early pace on a 1m33.158s, but that certainly won't keep him P1 for long.
Marquez manages to have a minor off-track moment at the Turn 8 right-hander on his out-lap, which is quite impressive.
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Q2 line-up: Vinales, Marquez, Rossi, Zarco, Dovizioso, Lorenzo, Miller, A Espargaro, Rabat, Iannone, Petrucci, Pedrosa.
Green flag
Q2 underway now.
While we await Q2. as well as hopefully some updates on Crutchlow, it's worth spotlighting some off-track drama that's been going on in MotoGP.
The Marc VDS team is currently in limbo as "conflict" between team boss Michael Bartholemy and manager Marc van der Straten has escalated this weekend, with Bartholemy vowing to clear his name after his contract was terminated:![Bartholemy removed from Marc VDS team boss role]()
The Marc VDS team is currently in limbo as "conflict" between team boss Michael Bartholemy and manager Marc van der Straten has escalated this weekend, with Bartholemy vowing to clear his name after his contract was terminated:
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Q1 results: 1 Petrucci; 2 Pedrosa; 3 Crutchlow; 4 Syahrin; 5 Rins; 6 Morbidelli; 7 Smith; 8 P Espargaro; 9 Nakagami; 10 Bautista; 11 Luthi; 12 Redding; 13 Simeon; 14 Abraham.
Crutchlow has been stretchered off-track now.
Red flag
Session red-flagged as Crutchlow is receiving treatment. It was not only a very painful fall but he got a subsequent hit from his bike too.
Checkered flag
Rins arrives at the chequered flag, and can only finish fifth.
Crash
Pol Espargaro's down at Turn 3.
Stopwatch
In the meantime, Petrucci has improved to a 1m31.818s at the sharp end.
By: Matt Beer
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