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Le Mans MotoGP: Maverick Vinales leads crash-filled practice

Maverick Vinales topped a crash-filled Friday afternoon MotoGP practice for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans as Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi was left facing a possible Q1 appearance again

Championship leader Marc Marquez led most of the session but his 1m32.2s efforts at the time were slower than Fabio Quartararo's morning benchmark, before times tumbled significantly at the end of the day.

Vinales first took the lead with a 1m31.983s with three minutes remaining before being quickly demoted by Jorge Lorenzo.

But Vinales was able to improve two more times with a 1m31.549s and then a 1m31.428s to head an ultra-close classification, in which 15 riders slotted in within one second of the fastest time.

Marquez took second but was nearly two tenths slower than Vinales, with local hero Quartararo ending up third.

The Frenchman beat Lorenzo by three thousandths of a second, while Andrea Dovizioso took fifth - only 0.02s behind.

Dovizioso was the top Ducati in what was an otherwise difficult Friday afternoon for the firm, with Danilo Petrucci crashing while exiting the Chemin aux Boeufs esses at the very beginning of the session then Pramac Jack Miller had crashes at both the Dunlop chicane and the final corner.

Petrucci recovered to sixth followed by KTM's Pol Espargaro, who also had two falls, and Aleix Espargaro - the Aprilia man another rider to crash in the end.

LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami took ninth and Franco Morbidelli completed the top 10, narrowly edging Cal Crutchlow out.

Crutchlow had challenged for the top positions before crashing at the Garage Vert double right-hander.

Rossi had to settle for 13th as he curiously started the late-session flying laps on a medium rear tyre, and a late change to soft left him with no time to move into the combined classification top 10.

Rain is forecast for Saturday, and should it arrive early enough for morning practice, Rossi could be forced to fight his way through Q1 along with several other usual frontrunners.

Suzuki duo Joan Mir, whose session also ended with a crash, and Alex Rins were only 14th and 15th respectively on Friday afternoon, ahead of Miller.

But Miller still ended the day in the overall top 10, by just 0.001s ahead of Morbidelli, courtesy of his morning time.

Practice two times

Pos Rider Team Time Gap Laps
1 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1m31.428s - 21
2 Marc Marquez Honda 1m31.618s 0.190s 22
3 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha 1m31.713s 0.285s 23
4 Jorge Lorenzo Honda 1m31.716s 0.288s 22
5 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m31.736s 0.308s 21
6 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 1m31.899s 0.471s 17
7 Pol Espargaro KTM 1m31.923s 0.495s 12
8 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1m32.132s 0.704s 17
9 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda 1m32.203s 0.775s 20
10 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha 1m32.239s 0.811s 22
11 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 1m32.270s 0.842s 18
12 Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati 1m32.285s 0.857s 18
13 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m32.320s 0.892s 20
14 Joan Mir Suzuki 1m32.322s 0.894s 23
15 Alex Rins Suzuki 1m32.385s 0.957s 22
16 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati 1m32.573s 1.145s 15
17 Johann Zarco KTM 1m32.574s 1.146s 19
18 Karel Abraham Avintia Ducati 1m32.999s 1.571s 18
19 Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1m33.141s 1.713s 18
20 Miguel Oliveira Tech3 KTM 1m33.401s 1.973s 20
21 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati 1m33.431s 2.003s 23
22 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 KTM 1m33.903s 2.475s 19

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