Quartararo gives Yamaha another sensational MotoGP pole

Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo took another outrageous premier-class pole position for the French Grand Prix, defeating Marc Marquez in a second straight pole duel.

In a battle that looked like a carbon copy of their Jerez pole fight from two weeks prior, Marquez stole an early march on the field with a record-breaking 1m29.442s but could not match it on his second run.

Quartararo had been over three tenths of a second back as he swapped to a new rear tyre, but found four tenths, making the difference to Marquez and his Ducati in the tight-and-twisty final sector in particular for a 1m29.324s.

It means the inline-four Yamaha M1 is now the record lap holder in the premier class at both Jerez and Le Mans.

Alex Marquez made a significant second-run jump of his own in terms of laptime, but it didn't change his position, keeping him in third place. His rookie Gresini team-mate Fermin Aldeguer was right behind him in fourth, crashing right after setting his best time.

The other works Ducati of Pecco Bagnaia had a difficult first run in Q2 to a lowly 11th place, but at least looked to have recovered to fifth - only to have it sniped from him at the last second by the lead KTM of Maverick Vinales.

Bagnaia ended the session seventh tenths off pole and six tenths off Marquez.

Franco Morbidelli's qualifying was preceded by a comical crash in Saturday morning practice, as he rode through the gravel at Musee, arrived at the asphalt road at the end of the gravel trap and then crashed as he got back on the throttle.

He also had a crash at the very end of Q2, and will line up ninth, sharing row three with Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha).

Under-fire Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez produced arguably his best qualifying showing of the season, battling through Q1 and snatching a 10th place, while Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and Pedro Acosta (KTM) completed the Q2 order behind him.

Zarco crashed at Garage Vert right after posting a lap in Bagnaia's wheeltracks that would've at least lifted him past Fernandez were it not deleted for track limits.

French GP starting grid

1 Quartararo 2 M Marquez 3 A Marquez
4 Aldeguer 5 Vinales 6 Bagnaia
7 Bezzecchi 8 Miller 9 Morbidelli
10 Fernandez 11 Zarco 12 Acosta
13 Binder 14 Rins 15 Mir
16 Marini 17 Di Giannantonio 18 Bastianini
19 Ogura 20 Oliveira 21 Savadori
22 Nakagami

Brad Binder (KTM), Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Joan Mir (Honda) all lapped within half a tenth of that second Q1 transfer spot but had to settle for 13th, 14th and 15th respectively, with Luca Marini in 16th just a further 0.024s back from his team-mate Mir.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, bereft of front confidence at Le Mans, suffered only the third Q1 elimination by a Ducati all season (the first two having come from rookie Aldeguer in the first two rounds).

Di Giannantonio was only a quarter of a second off the pace in Q1, but that was enough to consign him to 17th on the grid, narrowly ahead of Tech3 KTM's Enea Bastianini.

An Ai Ogura crash at Chemin aux Boeufs forced a brief red-flag stoppage when his Aprilia RS-GP couldn't be cleared quickly from the outside of Turn 9, the engine running as it laid on its side - and still running, with smoke billowing out, once the marshals finally got it upright and began to wheel it away.

Ogura already looked to face an uphill battle before that and was a total non-factor in the tussle for Q2 after, though at the last moment he did at least pick off Pramac Yamaha returnee Miguel Oliveira for 19th.

Aprilia's Lorenzo Savadori beat Honda's Takaaki Nakagami in the battle of the test riders, the former riding in lieu of Jorge Martin and the latter a wildcard entry.