MotoGP French GP: Johann Zarco wows home fans with fastest Friday practice time

Zarco impressed at Le Mans, but reigning champion Marc Marquez find himself doomed to Q1

Johann Zarco raised his home crowd's hopes of a repeat French Grand Prix victory by going fastest in practice on Friday afternoon at Le Mans.

Riding an LCR Honda, as he did on his way to victory on the wet Bugatti circuit a year ago, Zarco pipped the VR46 Ducati of Fabio Di Giannantonio on a dry and sunny day that went mostly to script.

One major exception to that was Marc Marquez's failure to make it through to Q2 aboard the factory Ducati. The MotoGP legend's struggles appeared to be continuing as the day wore on, with few signs that he had the requisite pace. His final attempt to make the top 10 was then scuppered by none other than his team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, who fell ahead of him and brought out lap-ruining yellow flags.

Bagnaia was safely through by that stage, having set a time that would prove good enough for third on the timesheets.

Spanish Grand Prix winner Alex Marquez left it late to make it into the top 10, but got the Gresini Ducati into the safe zone with just two minutes left on the clock.

Points leader Marco Bezzecchi also cut it fine aboard the factory Aprilia, popping into the top 10 even later than Alex did. That concluded a solid, quiet day for the Italian, who will be joined in Q2 by his team-mate Jorge Martin despite an early excursion into the gravel for the Spaniard.

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Loic Venance / AFP via Getty Images

Joan Mir doubled Honda's joy on the Japanese marque's most promising day of the year so far, breezing into Q2 with fifth-fastest time. Meanwhile, Alex Rins delivered a major surprise by slotting the struggling Yamaha M1 into eighth place on the timesheets. To put that in perspective, the 2025 polesitter, his team-mate Fabio Quartararo, was down in 17th, with the rest of the Yamahas for company.

Completing the list of names to make Q2 directly were Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) and KTM rider Pedro Acosta. The latter did things the hard way, squeezing into 10th place after falling with 11 minutes to go. He went down at the very end of a lap that looked set to be the fastest of the session at that point, and had to scurry back for the spare bike, on which he did just enough to scrape through.

Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) didn't make it after parking a bike that was spewing flames. He'll be joined in Q1 by 2025 Le Mans podium finisher Fermin Aldeguer, who crashed his Gresini Ducati in the middle part of the session and was unable to rediscover his rhythm.

MotoGP French GP Friday practice results

FiP

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	23	1'29.907		177.863	317
2	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	23	+0.010 1'29.917	0.010	177.844	316
3	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	22	+0.138 1'30.045	0.128	177.591	322
4	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	26	+0.138 1'30.045	0.000	177.591	318
5	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	27	+0.185 1'30.092	0.047	177.498	320
6	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	23	+0.221 1'30.128	0.036	177.427	321
7	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	28	+0.270 1'30.177	0.049	177.331	324
8	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	21	+0.288 1'30.195	0.018	177.295	317
9	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	25	+0.289 1'30.196	0.001	177.293	319
10	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	21	+0.289 1'30.196	0.000	177.293	320
11	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	24	+0.367 1'30.274	0.078	177.140	322
12	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	26	+0.381 1'30.288	0.014	177.113	319
13	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	24	+0.464 1'30.371	0.083	176.950	321
14	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	22	+0.510 1'30.417	0.046	176.860	318
15	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	26	+0.521 1'30.428	0.011	176.839	312
16	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	25	+0.556 1'30.463	0.035	176.770	320
17	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	27	+0.562 1'30.469	0.006	176.758	312
18	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	24	+0.763 1'30.670	0.201	176.367	314
19	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	22	+0.816 1'30.723	0.053	176.264	320
20	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	20	+1.421 1'31.328	0.605	175.096	315
21	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	17	+1.527 1'31.434	0.106	174.893	318
22	J. Folger Tech 3	94	KTM	21	+2.543 1'32.450	1.016	172.971	312
View full results