Fabio Quartararo conjures up another dream lap in qualifying in France to secure pole position ahead of Marc Marquez – Alex Marquez third
Huge cheers in the stands at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans! Local hero Fabio Quartararo secured pole position in front of his French fans. With a new lap record of 1:29.324 minutes, the Yamaha star beat Marc Marquez (Ducati) by 0.118 seconds to take second place.
“It’s incredible to see how much the fans support us,” said Quartararo about the electric atmosphere in the stands. “This pole position is very important to me. I’ll try to have a good sprint race – thank you for all this energy!”
Marc Marquez was unable to improve on his time in his second attempt. “When I was in the pits, we talked about the times, and I said, ‘I think Quartararo will be even faster.’ And in the end, he was actually faster,” said the Spaniard.
“I tried, but I took a bit too much of a risk in the last sector and lost out as a result. Fabio deserves this pole position in front of his fans. But I’m happy with my pace and glad to be starting from the front row. That was the main goal.”
Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) secured third place on the front row. ‘These two guys are having a very strong weekend,’ said the championship leader. ”I’m really happy with our performance and the progress we’ve made compared to yesterday.”
Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini-Ducati) qualified in fourth place. This is the rookie’s best starting position so far. After setting his personal best time, he crashed in the Dunlop chicane when his front wheel suddenly folded.
EL DIABLO HAS DONE IT
QUARTARARO GETS POLE AT HOME IN THE LAST SECOND FrenchGP pic. twitter.com/cCVonQliuf
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) May 10, 2025
KTM spearhead Maverick Vinales secured a good starting position with fifth place on the middle of the second row. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) finished sixth, seven tenths of a second behind the leader.
Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) leads the third row in seventh place. Jack Miller (Pramac-Yamaha) and Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) will line up alongside him. The places on the fourth row went to Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia), Johann Zarco (LCR-Honda) and Pedro Acosta (KTM).
In addition to Aldeguer, Zarco and Morbidelli also crashed in Q2. All three were uninjured.
Q1: Red flag after Ai Ogura crash
In the first section, Ai Ogura crashed in turn 9. Yellow flags were waved, and some riders had their lap times deleted in the first attempt. Five riders, including Ogura, had no time next to their names before the final attempt.
Q1 was eventually interrupted to recover the crashed Trackhouse Aprilia from the grass and move it behind the barriers. The final minutes of Q1 passed without further incident.
RED FLAG
The session has been stopped due to @AiOgura79‘s incident FrenchGP pic. twitter.com/i15rQefvf5
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) May 10, 2025
Local hero Zarco set the fastest time with 1:30.399 minutes. Raul Fernandez secured his second Q2 spot of the season, just 0.032 seconds behind. Brad Binder (KTM) narrowly missed out and finished in 13th place on the grid.
It was very close in Q1, with the top five riders separated by just a tenth of a second (Q1 results). Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Joan Mir (Honda) complete the fifth row. Luca Marini (Honda) finished 16th.
Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) continued his difficult weekend so far with 17th place on the grid. Behind him were Enea Bastianini (Tech3-KTM), Ogura, Miguel Oliveira (Pramac-Yamaha) and the two test riders Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and Takaaki Nakagami (Honda).
