Le Mans MotoGP qualifying
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That looked extremely painful, he highsided at Turn 8 and the medical crew is already with him. He's clearly conscious but not on his feet and looks in pain.
Crash
Crutchlow down in a huge crash!
Pol Espargaro has had a big moment through the Turn 11 right-hander, but just managed to hold on to it.
Crash
Karel Abraham down at Turn 6. That makes it two Nieto Ducati crashes in Q1.
No improvement from Petrucci, but there's one from Crutchlow - although it's only good enough for third.
Four minutes left on the clock, Petrucci looks to be on a fast one.
Bradley Smith is up to P5 as the lead KTM at the moment, but he can count himself lucky to be on the bike at all, having just held on to a mini-highside on his first run.
Information
Running order: 1 Petrucci; 2 Pedrosa; 3 Rins; 4 Crutchlow; 5 Smith; 6 Morbidelli; 7 P Espargaro; 8 Nakagami; 9 Syahrin; 10 Luthi; 11 Simeon; 12 Abraham; 13 Redding; 14 Bautista.
Rins briefly takes over second place from Pedrosa, but the Honda man speeds up once more to retake the spot. He's now only a tenth off Petrucci.
Stopwatch
The Q1 crew are picking up the pace now, Danilo Petrucci has fired in a 1m31.967s. Pedrosa is half a second off in second place.
Crash
Alvaro Bautista has crashed.
The benchmark time after the first series of laps belongs to Tech 3's Hafizh Syahrin, a 1m33.088s.
Green flag
The 15-minute Q1 session is now underway.
It's a stronger-than-usual Q1 roster. At least two of Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, Alex Rins and Danilo Petrucci will not make it to Q2.
Information
Q1 line-up: Crutchlow, Petrucci, Rins, P Espargaro, Bautista, Pedrosa, Smith, Morbidelli, Syahrin, Nakagami, Redding, Abraham, Luthi, Simeon.
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Checkered flag
Andrea Dovizioso has topped the race pace simulation FP4 just now, by 0.010s over Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci.
It was a mighty close session, with Marquez, Johann Zarco and Andrea Iannone making up the top five and all fitting in within 0.140s of the pace-setter.
Rossi crashed in FP4, as did Crutchlow.
It was a mighty close session, with Marquez, Johann Zarco and Andrea Iannone making up the top five and all fitting in within 0.140s of the pace-setter.
Rossi crashed in FP4, as did Crutchlow.
Andrea Iannone has been the form man at Suzuki the last few races, but looks increasingly unlikely to retain his ride – and rumour has it he already has a (somewhat surprising) exit strategy in place.
Information
Between race day on Jerez and qualifying day at Le Mans, a few more have fallen into place in the 2019 grid puzzle.
We know now that Dovizioso is staying at Yamaha, that Aleix Espargaro will stick with Aprilia (and thus Aprilia will stick with MotoGP) and that Alex Rins' recent crashes have not deterred Suzuki from extending his deal.
There's another 15 races left to run this year, yet all but four factory rides – one at Honda, one at Ducati, one at Suzuki, one at Aprilia – are already sorted through to the end of 2020.
Pramac's Danilo Petrucci has labelled the situation as “pretty stupid”, and he might very well have a point, but the riders who now have three-year job security will beg to differ.
We know now that Dovizioso is staying at Yamaha, that Aleix Espargaro will stick with Aprilia (and thus Aprilia will stick with MotoGP) and that Alex Rins' recent crashes have not deterred Suzuki from extending his deal.
There's another 15 races left to run this year, yet all but four factory rides – one at Honda, one at Ducati, one at Suzuki, one at Aprilia – are already sorted through to the end of 2020.
Pramac's Danilo Petrucci has labelled the situation as “pretty stupid”, and he might very well have a point, but the riders who now have three-year job security will beg to differ.
Marc Marquez has been happy with his Honda's new fairing this week, but it was difficult not to doubt its impact a bit after FP3. The Spaniard crashed late on and broke off the right half of the aero winglet, but picked up the bike and fired in the second-fastest time anyway.
Honda's Marc Marquez, Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and Yamaha's Maverick Vinales have topped a practice session each in the lead-up to qualifying, suggesting that all three of the series' leading manufacturers are firmly in the hunt for pole.
But it's Yamaha that needs this one the most. On the back of a bruising Jerez round, the Japanese manufacturer simply has to maximise its results at the venue where it locked out the front row last year – otherwise the rest of 2018 will be looking bleak indeed.
But it's Yamaha that needs this one the most. On the back of a bruising Jerez round, the Japanese manufacturer simply has to maximise its results at the venue where it locked out the front row last year – otherwise the rest of 2018 will be looking bleak indeed.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of qualifying for MotoGP's French Grand Prix at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit.
By: Matt Beer
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