Jorge Martin takes pole at Le Mans with track record – Bagnaia and Vinales on front row – Marc Marquez retires in Q1
Jorge Martin celebrates his first pole position at Le Mans since the MotoGP season opener in Qatar. Despite a crash, the Pramac rider secured top spot in qualifying for the French Grand Prix with a new track record of 1:29.919 minutes.
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who also crashed, was narrowly beaten into second place. Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) completed the front row in third.
“The lap time was incredible,” said pole setter Martin. “I felt really good with the hard front tire and knew that my second lap would be the fastest, so I gave 100 percent. The competition is strong, so it will be a tough race. But we are fast enough to fight.”
The two qualifying sessions took place in sunshine and perfect conditions. Marc Marquez (Gresini-Ducati), Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Brad Binder (KTM), three riders who are normally among the clear Q2 candidates, were already represented in the first section. But only the top 2 made it through.
Marc Marquez initially followed Bastianini on his flying lap, but Bastianini went straight in the chicane, meaning that Marquez had to finish the lap alone. He set a time of 1:30.586 minutes and moved into the lead.
Binder started the session less well. He only completed two laps and headed straight back to the pits. His number 1 bike, on which he had crashed three times on Friday, was not working as usual, which is why the team prepared the second bike to give Binder another chance in the second run.
Before this second run, Marc Marquez and Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse-Aprilia) claimed the top two positions for themselves. However, this was to change in the final phase
Marc Marquez out early in Q1
Bastianini beat Marquez’s best time by three tenths and pushed him out of first place, while the Spaniard had to abort his lap after a heavy front wheel slide in turn 2. However, he was unable to improve on his final attempt due to yellow flags caused by late crashes in the field
WHAT
A MASSIVE MOMENT for @marcmarquez93 as the rest of the pack begin their flying laps FrenchGP pic. twitter.com/kfJKpWZUyE
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) May 11, 2024
At this point, Marquez was still in second place, but Oliveira managed to improve his position, pushing him out of the top 2. As a result, Marquez missed out on a subsequent Q2 entry and was stuck in third place.
The Gresini rider will therefore have to start the Sprint and Grand Prix from 13th on the grid. Things went even worse for Binder, who did not manage a clean lap on his second bike either. As the last rider of the session, he will have to start from the back of the grid.
The other end of the grid was then at stake in the second qualifying section. Bastianini had set a track record of 1:30.233 minutes in Q1.
Martin beat this with his first flying attempt and pushed the record to 1:30.141 minutes. On the next lap, he was the first to break the 1:30 mark. Only Bagnaia could come close to keeping up with him
First Martin crashes and then Bagnaia
He lined up in second place, just under two tenths of a second behind. This order did not change in the final time attack, as both Martin and Bagnaia crashed while trying to improve their position
It all happened so fast! @88jorgemartin HAS GONE DOWN AT T4! FrenchGP pic.twitter.com/oGRFG4HgyG
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) May 11, 2024
This caused yellow flags, which is why some laps were canceled. After Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Jack Miller (KTM) also went down, there were hardly any improvements. Only Marco Bezzecchi (VR46-Ducati) managed a late leap forward. He improved to fifth place.
The Italian thus lined up behind Martin, Bagnaia and Vinales as well as his VR46 team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio, who also recorded a strong result with fourth place. Espargaro finished sixth despite a crash.
MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta (Tech3-GasGas) finished seventh and leads the third row of the grid ahead of Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Franco Morbidelli (Pramac-Ducati).
Bastianini was stuck in tenth place after his Q1 march through. He had to abort his final lap while on course for best time due to the yellow flags. He is joined on row four by Miller, who crashed, and trackhouse rider Oliveira.
Marc Marquez shares the fifth row of the grid with Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) and Johann Zarco (LCR-Honda), who crashed late in Q1. They are followed by Alex Rins (Yamaha), Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) and Joan Mir (Honda) on row six.
Takaaki Nakagami (LCR-Honda), Augusto Fernandez (Tech3-GasGas), who also crashed, Luca Marini (Honda) and Binder complete the grid in 19th to 22nd place.
