Quartararo, who recently won the qualifiers in Portugal and Spain, finally beat rainy and windy conditions at Le Mans by 81,000 over his Yamaha teammate, Maverick Vinales. Spain’s winner, Jack Miller from Australia (+0.104) completed the top three, behind the Frenchman and the Spaniard. Six-time world champion Marc Marquez managed to knock out the top starting position in sixth place on the drying track until the end of the qualifiers.

The Spaniard did much better than defending champions Mir and World Cup leaders Banja. Both missed a qualifying for the second quarter on the wet ring. So, the race started from 14th on his Suzuki, and Ducati Bagnaya’s driver finished only 16th in the qualifiers. The leadership of the Italian national team in the World Cup is in grave danger. Because Bagnaia’s lead over Quartararo before the French Grand Prix was only two points.

Twenty-second place by Kofler

In the Moto3 category, qualification was clearly Andrea Migno’s affair. Italian Honda rider set the best time by two seconds ahead of KTM riders Ricardo Rossi (ITA) and Jaume Macia (ESP) and took first place on the grid.

Maximilian Kofler failed the KTM race in the first quarter and came 22nd in the rating. The 20-year-old was missing only 13 percent to advance to the second round of the qualifiers. “It’s a shame, especially because he was so close,” said Kofler. Upper Austria was in good company, as World Cup leader Pedro Acosta of Spain also failed this time in the first quarter. The Spaniard landed 21st just ahead of Kofler. 1st place in Moto2 went to Raul Fernandez – another Spaniard.

French Grand Prix at Le Mans