Day one of the French Grand Prix concluded positively for the Repsol Honda Team at the Bugatti Circuit, with both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa making it into the provisional top 10 in a very tight combined classification.

The Championship leader in particular enjoyed a very successful start to the weekend, following his usual pattern of work focused on race setup and lapping mostly on used tyres. He ended FP1 and FP2 in first and second places, respectively.

Dani Pedrosa, not yet at 100% physically, didn’t immediately hit it off with the French track in the morning free practice session, which he completed in 15th position, but he improved his pace toward the end of the afternoon stint and wrapped up the day 8th fastest, just over half a second off the top.

Marc Marquez

2nd 1'32.104

“Luckily we had two full dry sessions to start our work on the bike, and the weather forecasts are also pretty good for the rest of the weekend—not really a given here in Le Mans. So we had the opportunity to work on our race setup, and we concentrated on trying to understand the tyres. We tried all the rear tyres, and we just missed trying the hard front, which we want to check tomorrow. Today I did my fastest time with the hard rear spec, which had about 10 laps on it. It was a positive first day but we need to keep working, as we want to improve a bit of everything in the setup since everything seems really, really tight here.”

Dani Pedrosa

8th 1'32.466

“Today I struggled a little to find a good pace because I was feeling a bit sore after testing for two days following the crash in Jerez. I wasn’t 100 per cent physically when I got on my bike this morning, so we didn’t start so well. Then we improved little by little and finished better in the afternoon, which is positive. I tried the new aerodynamics in my last run, and at this track in particular, that seems to offer a bit of help in controlling the wheelies. The bike seems more balanced in general, but we want to work on it more to understand things better. Tomorrow we’ll focus on the tyres, and we’ll try to adjust a few details in the bike’s setup.”

MotoGP 2018
Practice Round 5   France

FP2 Classification

Sunny
Humidity
42%
Track Temp
42°C
Air Temp
21°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Dovizioso Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1'31.936
2 Marquez Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 0.168
3 Rossi Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 0.243
4 Vinales Maverick 25 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 0.268
5 Zarco Johann 5 FRA Pramac Racing Ducati 0.343
6 Miller Jack 43 AUS Pramac Racing Ducati 0.366
7 Espargaro Pol 44 SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 0.478
8 Pedrosa Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 0.530
9 Espargaro Aleix 41 SPA Aprilia Racing Aprilia 0.636
10 Lorenzo Jorge 99 SPA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 0.640
11 Crutchlow Cal 35 GBR LCR Honda Honda 0.650
12 Rabat Tito 53 SPA Esponsorama Racing Ducati 0.681
13 Petrucci Danilo 9 ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 0.711
14 Iannone Andrea 29 ITA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 0.816
15 Rins Alex 42 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 0.867
16 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA Angel Nieto Team Ducati 0.915
17 Nakagami Takaaki 30 JPN LCR Honda Honda 1.136
18 Smith Bradley 38 GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1.382
19 Syahrin Hafizh 55 MAL Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1.499
20 Morbidelli Franco 21 ITA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1.731
21 Redding Scott 45 GBR Aprilia Racing Aprilia 1.894
22 Abraham Karel 17 CZE Angel Nieto Team Ducati 2.006
23 Luthi Tom 12 SWI EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 2.153
24 Simeon Xavier 10 BEL Esponsorama Racing Ducati 2.375
Location Information

Built in 1965 around the existing 24-Hour track, the Le Mans Bugatti Grand Prix race circuit lies 5km south of the city of Le Mans and 200km south-west of Paris. The venue has hosted Grand Prix since the late sixties but a serious accident to Spanish rider Alberto Puig in… read more.

Length 4.185 kilometres / 2.6 miles
Width 13 metres
Left corners 5
Right corners 9
Longest straight 0.674 kilometres / 0.419 miles
Constructed 1966
Modified 2008
Resurfacing Resurfaced before 2017 round

Automobile Club de l'Ouest, Le Mans, France - View in Google Maps

www.lemans.org

Records

Pole Position 1m 30.450s (166.5km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2022)
Race Lap 1m 31.778s (164.1km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2022)
Race Time 41m 34.613s (163 km/h) Enea Bastianini (Ducati, 2022)
2022 Race Winner Enea Bastianini (Ducati)