Francesco Bagnaia took his first Moto2 pole position at the French GP at Le Mans, the fifth round of the MotoGP world championship.
The early pacesetter was Xavi Vierge, as Mattia Pasini and Fabio Quartararo both crashed in the early stages. However Bagnaia soon assumed control. The fastest man in the practice sessions, Marcel Schrotter was fourth. He would soon find himself on the floor at turn three however, but still had plenty of time to get back to the pits. Jorge Navarro would also go down, complete with his Monsters Inc. helmet design. Sam Lowes would be fourth on his first run, just behind Joan Mir.
Lowes would then crash 15 minutes into the session at turn seven, a corner that was catching out a few riders over the course of the weekend, other than that there was no movement apart from Stefano Manzi getting his Forward Racing Suter up to 21st, then immediately crashing just behind Lowes at turn seven. Niki Tuuli, on his first ride on the SIC Racing Team Kalex was attempting to break the top 20, but it was proving unsuccessful. The winner from Jerez, Lorenzo Baldassarri, was in seventh, just ahead of the MotoGP bound Miguel Olivera. The home hero Quartararo, despite the crash, was tenth.
With 20 minutes left, Alex Marquez would finally wake up and go third, just as everyone made their customary dive into the pits to regroup and get the fresh tyres. One of the few remaining riders still out there was the ‘extra entry’ Cedric Tangre, on a ‘spare’ Tech 3 Mistral chassis, his fairing would detatch however and he would go down as he tipped into the corner. He was stone last so that wouldn’t help his cause. Tuuli would also have an incident, at turn 14 this time and lost vaulable seat time.
As is usual, with eight minutes remaining it was time for everyone to pull their finger out, or they would be left behind. Hector Barbera blinked first, and set a new personal best to go to eleventh. Simone Corsi would follow suit and go eighth, as Manzi had his second crash at turn seven of the session. Marquez and Mir would both set personal best laps too to go back to fourth and third respectively, and were then instantly bumped down by Baldassarri. Lowes would have his second crash with two minutes left, and would be seventh at the highest, and the wildcard Xavier Cardelus would also slip off. It seemed with only one minute remaining the very early laps set by Bagnaia and Vierge would be their fastest, as nobody was able to match the times. Vierge would crash as the flag came out, knowing his second place was safe. The top six riders were Bagnaia, Vierge, Baldassarri on the front row, and the second row would be headed up by Mir, Schrotter and Marquez. Joe Roberts also deserved a mention, managing to get the NTS chassis up to 17th place.
With Vierge splitting the two Italians on the front row, will he be able to get away? Or will the very strong second row containing both Marc VDS bikes have a say? Find out tomorrow on Overtake Motorsport!
