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General

MotoGP Le Mans race

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Lorenzo has passed Petrucci and Miller and is up to eighth. Decent recovery, but he's seven seconds behind his next target, Crutchlow.
Stopwatch
Lap 14/28: Pedrosa is lapping in the 1m32s now - the Jerez winner is on the march now in fifth spot.
Crutchlow lost time because he was whacked wide by Pedrosa at Turn 6.
Lap 13/28: 1m32.872s from Vinales last time out, which is a race best lap. However, he cannot shake Zarco. Meanwhile, a mistake for Rossi at Turn 8 on the previous lap has dropped him into the clutches of Marquez.
Stopwatch
A new fastest lap from Vinales that last time around, a 1m32.872s.
Cal Crutchlow was two seconds slower than Vinales on that last lap and has dropped to seventh. Has the LCR rider got a problem?
Lap 12/28: Top four covered by just under half a second. Vinales leads Zarco, Rossi, Marquez still.
Lap 11/28: Marquez the fastest man on track on a 1m32.953s, Zarco upping his pace in second to a 1m33.1s.
Crutchlow could be one to watch here. Le Mans very stop-and-go, and he is on the harder front tyre which offers greater braking stability.
Lap 10/28: Rossi closes in on Zarco at the Dunlop chicane having just posted his best lap of the race. He has to get a move done soon to stop Vinales running away.
Lap 9/28: Vinales leads Zarco, Rossi, Marquez, Crutchlow, Dovizioso, Pedrosa. A little further back comes Miller, Lorenzo and Petrucci.
Vinales may have just posted the best lap of the race, but he is not shaking Zarco's advances.
Crash
Looks like a mechanical problem for Redding, touring slowly on his Pramac Ducati. He's made it back to the pits and retired.
Lap 8/28: Vinales leads across the line from Zarco, the Spaniard posting a 1m32.98s in the process. He is trying to check out.
Crash
Redding has fallen down the timing screens from seventh somewhere in the third sector.
Lap 7/28: Vinales takes the lead into the Dunlop chicane.
Abraham has capped off a miserable day for Aspar Ducati with a retirement. The Czech rider has pulled into pit lane.
Crutchlow is the only rider on the hard tyre, so while he's lost some ground to the leaders early, he'll be playing the long game.
Lap 6/28: Marquez has fired in the best lap of the race last time round with a 1m33.162s in fourth. Gap between Zarco and Vinales down to three tenths.
Behind the Yamahas, it's Marquez in fourth, from Crutchlow, Dovizioso, PEdrosa, Redding, Miller and Lorenzo.
Lap 5/28: Zarco leads by just over half a second from Vinales, though the Spaniard is coming under pressure from his Yamaha team-mate Rossi.
Information
Hector Barbera has pulled into the pits with a problem.
Lap 4/28: Zarco pops in the fastest lap, a 1m33.194s.
A little further back, Lorenzo has moved up from 16th to 10th in the first three laps. Ducati team-mate Dovizioso is sixth.
Lap 3/28: Zarco continues to lead. It is all calm at the moment inside the top 10.
The full tyre sheet, via Michelin

The full tyre sheet, via Michelin

Lap 2/28: Zarco leads onto lap two, using the grip advantage from his soft tyres to pull out a slight advantage over Vinales and Rossi.

Further down, Dani Pedrosa has jumped up from 13th to seventh.
Crash
Alvaro Bautista has crashed on lap one.
Lap 1/28: Home hero Johann Zarco leads the French Grand Prix. Vinales slots into second ahead of Rossi.
Green flag
The race is go!
The warm-up lap is away. Ahead of this race, the top four - Rossi, Vinales, Marquez, Pedrosa - are split by just 10 points.
Information
This is the tyre situation: Both factory Yamaha riders have opted for the medium on both ends, while Zarco is going to go all out in the opening stages on the soft combination.

Zarco posted some seriously quick times in FP4 on the softer tyres on Saturday, so this could well be a good gamble as he aims to become the first French premier class race winner since Regis Laconi at Valencia in 1999.
Just a few moments to go till lights out, this is your grid:
Row 1 - Vinales - Rossi - Zarco
Row 2 - Crutchlow - Marquez - Dovizioso
Row 3 - Redding - P.Espargaro - Abraham
Row 4 - Smith - Miller - Baz
Row 5 Pedrosa - Bautista - Folger
Row 6 Lorenzo - Iannone - A.Espargaro
Row 7 Petrucci - Barbera - Lowes
Row 8 Rabat - Guintoli
The local commentator has whipped the big crowd - call it the Zarco factor - into a frenzy. Zarco and Rossi got the biggest cheers during some call-and-response over the PA, and the fans have just belted out a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise.
In Moto3, it was a dominant win for championship leader Joan Mir after the race was red-flagged due to a massive, multi-rider pile up on the second lap at Turn 6 caused by oil on track from an earlier incident. Romano Fenati led early after the restart but crashed on lap seven, handing Mir a massive advantage.

Jerez race winner Aron Canet prevailed in a manic fight for second from Fabio Di Giannantonio.

And in Moto2, Franco Morbidelli absorbed massive pressure from rookie Pecco Bagnaia for his fourth win of the season. Pole man Tom Luthi completed the podium, and Alex Marquez was fourth, racing with a fracture in his left foot from a practice crash.
We have already enjoyed two superb races so far at Le Mans today.
Green flag
Good afternoon! We are just 15 minutes away from the start of the 2017 French Grand Prix and we have an all-Yamaha front row: Vinales, Rossi, Zarco is your top three after a frantic qualifying session on Saturday.

By: Mitchell Adam

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