Pecco Bagnaia wins pole position at the French MotoGP GP in Le Mans By Bruna
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Pecco Bagnaia took pole position from Grande Prêmio and França in MotoGP with a time of 1:29.634, just 0.012 seconds ahead of Marc Márquez on the Le Mans circuit. The Ducati Lenovo driver confirmed his recovery after returning to the front row of the grid almost 200 days after his injury. Marco Bezzecchi completes the front row with the third best mark, while Fabio Di Giannantonio closes the sequence of favorites in fourth place. The difference between Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio was just 0.065 seconds, one of the smallest ever recorded in MotoGP history.
Bagnaia revealed satisfaction with the performance. “I’m very happy; since testing, we found something that helped us, and I hope we can maintain that level this afternoon. The key to the sprint will be consistency with the tires and our times, because we’ve seen that they don’t wear too much and we’re all very close in pace.” Essa was Bagnaia’s third pole position on the Le Mans circuit during his career.
Direção of Prova investigated a possible incident between the two-time champion and Di Giannantonio on the last lap launched by the VR46 driver, when he was trying to take thousandths of a second off his rival’s time. Nenhuma penalty was applied to Bagnaia, who remains in the lead on the starting grid.
Márquez overcomes difficulties in Q1 and advances to contention for pole
Marc Márquez set a new track record in Q1 with a phenomenal time of 1:29.288, leaving behind Fabio Quartararo and Raúl Fernández. The Lleida driver’s lap was almost half a second faster than the Frenchman’s, ensuring his classification for Q2 with a comfortable margin. Márquez acknowledged the challenges faced throughout the weekend.
“It’s not that others are going faster, it’s that I’m going slower,” said the nine-time world champion. The Ducati pilot revealed difficulties at specific points on the route. “Maybe I still lack a little pace, but we have these hours to work and try to be faster. Acho that there are still some points on the track where I have difficulties, such as turn 2, although turn 3 also gave me trouble.”
Essa was the first time that Márquez had to fight to reach Q2 since Grande Prêmio of Indonésia in 2025, precisely the weekend he suffered his shoulder injury. In Q2, the Spaniard finished second with 1:29.646, just 0.012 seconds behind Bagnaia.
Bezzecchi leads intermediate grid; Acosta and Martín complete the top-5
The competition remained extremely fierce throughout qualifying. Além of Bagnaia and Márquez, other drivers show potential to interfere in today’s race. Pedro Acosta remains in fifth place, while Jorge Martín occupies eighth place on the grid.
Bezzecchi commented on the collective performance. “We need to work hard, because Pecco is very fast and Marc seemed to be struggling yesterday, but today he took a big step forward and we immediately saw that he is very fast. Di Giannantonio is also in contention, and everyone is very close.” The top four were separated by just six hundredths of a second in Q2, highlighting the extreme parity of the weekend.
Grid starting and upcoming commitments
The starting grid for today’s sprint race (3pm Europa Central time) and for tomorrow’s Grande Prêmio França features the following formation:
- 1st place: Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo)
- 2nd place: Marc Márquez (Ducati Lenovo)
- 3rd place: Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati VR46)
- 4th place: Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati VR46)
- 5th place: Pedro Acosta (KTM)
- 6th place: Joan Mir (Honda)
- 7th place: Ai Ogura (Yamaha)
- 8th place: Jorge Martín (Aprilia)
- 9th place: Álex Rins (Yamaha)
- 10th place: Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)
Johann Zarco secured 11th place, while drivers like Raúl Fernández, Enea Bastianini and Luca Marini complete the second half of the grid. The sprint race takes place this afternoon, serving as a preview for the main Grande Prêmio scheduled for Sunday on the Le Mans circuit.
Condições climatological and general performance
Apesar weather forecasts indicate rain for today and tomorrow, the sun shone brightly on the circuit during qualifying, with an ambient temperature of around 19°C and the track at 14°C. The final free practice session had been dominated by local Fabio Quartararo, with a time of 1:30.580, just 0.066 seconds ahead of Pecco Bagnaia. Márquez finished that session in sixteenth place.
Yesterday’s qualifying was marked as the closest in MotoGP history, with all ten Top-10 riders separated by less than three-tenths of a second. Isso reflects the high level of competition faced by the drivers this weekend in Le Mans, where any tenth of a second makes the difference between pole position and elimination in Q1.
