Danilo “Petrux” Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM) with a gloomy look – like almost all of his brand colleagues, the northern Italian failed in the FP2 on the hunt for a good time.

Yamaha Festival on the first day – Rossi can still do it!

Despite all prophecies of doom, the old master proved to all critics that he can still do it. While all Suzuki and except for Oliveira all KTM pilots stumbled, Valentino Rossi made it into the top ten and all Yamaha’s are provisionally in Q2. If the weather forecast comes true, there could be a small chance for improvement in FP3 on Saturday morning. Otherwise, it looks threatening for the mentioned drivers as well as for World Championship leader Bagnaia on Saturday. It was a jubilee day for the French, even if the race doesn’t start until Sunday. With Johann Zarco on again the best Ducati in front of his compatriot Fabio Quartararo, their compatriots can be more than satisfied for now. Also, impressive is Pol Espargaró, who this time was the best Honda even in the dry. With Marc Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami, Honda in particular is doing very well and there are no alleged problems to be seen. A good example of the nonsense often spread in the media to distract attention from the problems of individual drivers. With a non-functioning RC213V, “Taka-San” would hardly have missed the podium by 0.6 seconds in Jerez.

P, No, Rider, Km/h, Time/Gap
1, 5, Johann ZARCO, 320.6, 1’31.747,
2, 20, Fabio QUARTARARO, 315.5, 1’31.842, 0.095 / 0.095
3, 12, Maverick VIÑALES, 313.5, 1’32.136, 0.389 / 0.294
4, 44, Pol ESPARGARO, 320.6, 1’32.137, 0.390 / 0.001
5, 21, Franco MORBIDELLI, 310.6, 1’32.279, 0.532 / 0.142
6, 88, Miguel OLIVEIRA, 314.5, 1’32.296, 0.549 / 0.017
7, 43, Jack MILLER, 319.6, 1’32.361, 0.614 / 0.065
8, 93, Marc MARQUEZ, 316.5, 1’32.632, 0.885 / 0.271
9, 46, Valentino ROSSI, 312.6, 1’32.669, 0.922 / 0.037
10, 30, Takaaki NAKAGAMI, 314.5, 1’32.711, 0.964 / 0.042
11, 42, Alex RINS, 314.5, 1’32.762, 1.015 / 0.051
12, 63, Francesco BAGNAIA, 320.6, 1’32.800, 1.053 / 0.038
13, 36, Joan MIR, 314.5, 1’32.908, 1.161 / 0.108
14, 41, Aleix ESPARGARO, 315.5, 1’32.946, 1.199 / 0.038
15, 27, Iker LECUONA, 312.6, 1’33.040, 1.293 / 0.094
16, 33, Brad BINDER, 313.5, 1’33.117, 1.370 / 0.077
17, 73, Alex MARQUEZ, 322.7, 1’33.204, 1.457 / 0.087
18, 53, Tito RABAT, 312.6, 1’33.361, 1.614 / 0.157
19, 23, Enea BASTIANINI, 316.5, 1’33.536, 1.789 / 0.175
20, 32, Lorenzo SAVADORI, 308.7, 1’33.985, 2.238 / 0.449
21, 10, Luca MARINI, 313.5, 1’34.147, 2.400 / 0.162
22, 9, Danilo PETRUCCI, 310.6, 1’34.520, 2.773 / 0.373

With Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati, right) on the best Ducati and provisional pole in front of his compatriot Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha), the French currently have a lot of reason to be happy.

Moto2 with Sam Lowes on track and Moto3 with a big surprise

The review of the first day of the MotoGP Grand Prix of France is very mixed, especially in the middle and smallest classes. While Sam Lowes is on track in Moto2, Moto3 rookie and World Championship leader Pedro Acosta failed significantly for the first time. The only 16-year-old Spaniard did not make it past 18th place and will have to hope for good weather on Saturday morning. Whether this is enough for veteran Tom Lüthi in the middle class to have a chance to move into Q2 remains to be doubted at the moment. His former teammate Marcel Schrötter was also unable to fully convince, but with P12 he is provisionally in the second qualifying. Jack Dixon is one of the drivers who disappointed in FP2. The Englishman who was still convincingly fast in the previous year did not get past position 26. Below are the times from FP2 of Moto2, the drivers not listed in italics are provisionally directly in Q2.

P, No, Rider, Km/h, Time/Gap
1, 22, Sam LOWES, 265.9, 1’36.307,
2, 25, Raul FERNANDEZ, 268.7, 1’36.382, 0.075 / 0.075
3, 37, Augusto FERNANDEZ, 265.9, 1’36.605, 0.298 / 0.223
4, 87, Remy GARDNER, 265.9, 1’36.640, 0.333 / 0.035
5, 11, Nicolò BULEGA, 266.6, 1’36.748, 0.441 / 0.108
6, 97, Xavi VIERGE, 266.6, 1’36.813, 0.506 / 0.065
7, 44, Aron CANET, 266.6, 1’36.864, 0.557 / 0.051
8, 21, Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO, 263.8, 1’36.959, 0.652 / 0.095
9, 72, Marco BEZZECCHI, 269.5, 1’37.062, 0.755 / 0.103
10, 64, Bo BENDSNEYDER, 266.6, 1’37.083, 0.776 / 0.021
11, 23, Marcel SCHROTTER, 263.8, 1’37.165, 0.858 / 0.082
12, 62, Stefano MANZI, 266.6, 1’37.215, 0.908 / 0.050
13, 9, Jorge NAVARRO, 268.7, 1’37.316, 1.009 / 0.101
14, 40, Hector GARZO, 267.3, 1’37.327, 1.020 / 0.011
15, 24, Simone CORSI, 263.1, 1’37.423, 1.116 / 0.096
16, 35, Somkiat CHANTRA, 267.3, 1’37.473, 1.166 / 0.050
17, 7, Lorenzo BALDASSARRI, 259.6, 1’37.497, 1.190 / 0.024
18, 79, Ai OGURA, 268.0, 1’37.499, 1.192 / 0.002
19, 12, Thomas LUTHI, 263.8, 1’37.606, 1.299 / 0.107
20, 42, Marcos RAMIREZ, 267.3, 1’37.640, 1.333 / 0.034
21, 55, Hafizh SYAHRIN, 266.6, 1’37.815, 1.508 / 0.175
22, 14, Tony ARBOLINO, 266.6, 1’37.844, 1.537 / 0.029
23, 6, Cameron BEAUBIER, 269.5, 1’38.055, 1.748 / 0.211
24, 75, Albert ARENAS, 268.0, 1’38.072, 1.765 / 0.017
25, 96, Jake DIXON, 263.1, 1’38.081, 1.774 / 0.009
26, 13, Celestino VIETTI, 263.8, 1’38.326, 2.019 / 0.245
27, 19, Lorenzo DALLA PORTA, 268.0, 1’38.335, 2.028 / 0.009
28, 16, Joe ROBERTS, 262.4, 1’38.458, 2.151 / 0.123
29, 70, Barry BALTUS, 261.0, 1’38.561, 2.254 / 0.103
30, 10, Tommaso MARCON, 261.0, 1’39.645, 3.338 / 1.084

Classification of Moto3 after the second free practice with the drivers in italics who are currently not directly qualified for Q2.
P, No, Rider, Km/h, Time/Gap
1, 2, Gabriel RODRIGO, 222.0, 1’42.150,
2, 40, Darryn BINDER, 221.6, 1’42.276, 0.126 / 0.126
3, 5, Jaume MASIA, 222.5, 1’42.331, 0.181 / 0.055
4, 23, Niccolò ANTONELLI, 224.0, 1’42.487, 0.337 / 0.156
5, 53, Deniz ÖNCÜ, 220.6, 1’42.510, 0.360 / 0.023
6, 16, Andrea MIGNO, 222.5, 1’42.538, 0.388 / 0.028
7, 55, Romano FENATI, 218.2, 1’42.553, 0.403 / 0.015
8, 6, Ryusei YAMANAKA, 219.6, 1’42.606, 0.456 / 0.053
9, 82, Stefano NEPA, 225.6, 1’42.650, 0.500 / 0.044
10, 71, Ayumu SASAKI, 225.6, 1’42.755, 0.605 / 0.105
11, 50, Jason DUPASQUIER, 222.5, 1’42.773, 0.623 / 0.018
12, 17, John MCPHEE, 219.6, 1’42.890, 0.740 / 0.117
13, 54, Riccardo ROSSI, 220.6, 1’42.892, 0.742 / 0.002
14, 11, Sergio GARCIA, 223.0, 1’42.915, 0.765 / 0.023
15, 99, Carlos TATAY, 220.1, 1’43.036, 0.886 / 0.121
16, 12, Filip SALAC, 219.6, 1’43.136, 0.986 / 0.100
17, 73, Maximilian KOFLER, 220.1, 1’43.181, 1.031 / 0.045
18, 37, Pedro ACOSTA, 221.6, 1’43.229, 1.079 / 0.048
19, 52, Jeremy ALCOBA, 218.2, 1’43.233, 1.083 / 0.004
20, 28, Izan GUEVARA, 223.5, 1’43.247, 1.097 / 0.014
21, 7, Dennis FOGGIA, 223.5, 1’43.249, 1.099 / 0.002
22, 27, Kaito TOBA, 222.0, 1’43.280, 1.130 / 0.031
23, 92, Yuki KUNII, 222.0, 1’43.321, 1.171 / 0.041
24, 24, Tatsuki SUZUKI, 219.1, 1’43.490, 1.340 / 0.169
25, 43, Xavier ARTIGAS, 222.0, 1’43.613, 1.463 / 0.123
26, 32, Takuma MATSUYAMA, 221.1, 1’44.032, 1.882 / 0.419
27, 31, Adrian FERNANDEZ, 220.6, 1’44.079, 1.929 / 0.047
28, 19, Andi Farid IZDIHAR, 219.6, 1’44.234, 2.084 / 0.155
29, 20, Lorenzo FELLON, 221.1, 1’44.758, 2.608 / 0.524

Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati, left) In contrast to Lenovo Ducati team-mate Jack Miller in the background, is not yet safe in Q2, should it be damp on Saturday morning. The World Cup leader must therefore hope for dry weather on Saturday morning.

Championship stand in all classes before the 5th round at Le Mans

Le Mans Grand Prix schedule

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© MotoGP).