Espargaró ninth and Márquez fifteenth on first day of French GP

Radiant sunshine and warm temperatures accompanied the MotoGP riders during the first two Free Practice sessions at the Le Mans Circuit.

Pol Espargaró had a positive first day in France. The Repsol Honda Team rider led the way in FP1 and, despite not improving his time of 1:31.771 in the afternoon, finished ninth on the combined timesheets for Friday.

Espargaró is provisionally through to Q2 on Saturday.

Marc Márquez experienced a more difficult day. The Repsol Honda Team rider was close to breaking into the top ten, but finally a 1:32.153 lap placed him fifteenth overall.

Márquez will have to improve his pace in FP3 in order to go directly into Q2.

#MM93

“FP2 was a real save and FP1 was more luck honestly! In FP1 I was on the kerb and I lost the front, so I tried to push with my right knee on the floor and the bike stood up when we came back to asphalt. But I am struggling a bit to understand how to be fast here. I need to turn the bike quicker and that’s where we are. We need to improve tomorrow, the target for FP3 is to get into the top ten for Q2. We will see what tomorrow bring, we already have some ideas to try.”

#POL44

“This morning went very well and then in the afternoon I tried to improve my lap time but there were a lot of yellow flags which stopped some of our laps and then on our best lap I made a mistake. At the end I feel good on the bike and it’s not a bad day, but we need to perform tomorrow to end up with a good Qualifying spot. You need to start in the front two rows of the grid to perform for Sunday. We have the pace, but we need to put it together when it matters tomorrow.”