MotoGP France, Sprint: Martin Dominant to Take Second Straight Sprint Win | BikeSport News

MotoGP arrives in France this weekend for the 2024 French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Despite crashing out of the previous Grand Prix in Spain, Jorge Martin leads the riders’ standings ahead of this weekend.

Sprint

Jorge Martin won the MotoGP Sprint in France, leading lights-to-flag after an exceptional start from pole position.

While Martin nailed his start, Francesco Bagnaia went backwards from second on the grid. By the end of lap one, Bagnaia was 15th, and he retired after going wide at Museum on lap four.

Marc Marquez made a tremendous start and was sixth by the end of lap one. Cutting through some more riders and benefiting from others mistakes brought him up to second by the end, but two seconds adrift of Martin.

The closest anyone got to Martin was Marco Bezzecchi, who got to within half-a-second in the first half of the race, but he was over a second back before he crashed at turn nine.

Maverick Vinales was third, and was one of Marquez mid-race victims, but held off Enea Bastianini who went from 10th on the grid to finish fourth.

Aleix Espargaro was third off the line, but hed jumped the start. A double long lap penalty dropped him to fifth.

Pedro Acosta took sixth place despite a huge front slide at the penultimate corner. He was ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Jack Miller, and Raul Fernandez who took the final point in ninth.

Qualifying

Jorge Martin set pole position with a new lap record and a milestone lap at that, as the #89 became the first rider to lap in the 1:29s around Le Mans on a MotoGP bike.

Martin’s lap came in his first run, which was fortunate because multiple riders crashed on the second run. Martin was one of them, between turns three and four, Francesco Bagnaia was another at turn nine, Jack Miller also crashed, and so did Aleix Espargaro.

Bagnaia hadn’t had a front row before Le Mans this year, but his first lap was enough for second on the grid. He was chasing pole position on his final lap when he crashed at turn nine, a crash whose resultant yellow flags cost Enea Bastianini a potential pole position lap, before bike issues ended his session early and left the #23 in 10th.

Maverick Vinales was one of the riders to not crash, and he qualified third, ahead of the VR46 duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi on fifth and sixth, repsectively, while Aleix Espargaro rounded out the second row.

Pedro Acosta qualified seventh, ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli on row three, while Bastianini heads up row four from Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira.

The major drama of Q1 was for Marc Marquez. He was fastest after his first run, which saw him set a time that would have been good enough for fourth on Friday. But the first flying lap of his second run was ruined by a huge front slide between turns two and three, and his second was ruined by a crash for Johann Zarco which brought out the yellow flags.

Brad Binder also fared poorly in Q1, having to switch to his second bike before he’d even set a lap time on his first bike and ending the session last on a 1:32.228.

FP2

Maverick Vinales topped the final practice session of the weekend in Le Mans, his 1:31.033 putting him just under a tenth clear of Francesco Bagnaia.

Enea Bastianini was third-fastest, and Jorge Martin fourth. Alex Marquez was fifth despite a crash, and each of the top five riders in FP2 led the session at some point.

Marc Marquez was sixth, ahead of Aleix Espargaro, Jack Miller, Raul Fernandez, and Franco Morbidelli who rounded out the top 10.

Joan Mir finished 19th, but was still within a second of Vinales, indicating the closeness of the field in Le Mans this weekend. In comparison, Mir’s Repsol Honda teammate Luca Marini was last, and almost 0.7 seconds behind second-last Johann Zarco.

PR

Jorge Martin completed a sweep of the Friday sessions in Le Mans, topping Practice with a new lap record – 1:30.388 – after he was fastest in FP1, too.

Francesco Bagnaia was second-fastest, just over a tenth shy of Martin, and half-a-tenth ahead of Pedro Acosta, the best KTM rider in third place.

Maverick Vinales was the best Aprilia rider in fourth, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio in fifth. Jack Miller was sixth-fastest, ahead of Aleix Espargaro, Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi, and Fabio Quartararo who delighted the home fans by getting himself directly into Q2.

Marc Marquez was unable to lap fast enough to get into Q2 in Practice, and neither was Brad Binder, who crashed three times on Friday.

FP1

Jorge Martin was fastest in MotoGP FP1 in France, but he could have gone even faster. After three splits on his final lap, he was 0.2 seconds under his best time, but he ran wide at the penultimate corner which meant he had to make do with a 1:31.421.

That still put him over 0.2 seconds clear of Pedro Acosta, who bounced back from his grueling Spanish GP Sunday well to finish second-fastest in FP1. Maverick Vinales was third, making it three brands – Ducati, KTM, Aprilia – in the top three.

The two factory Ducati riders, Enea Bastianini and Francesco Bagnaia, were fourth and fifth, respectively, ahead of Alex Marquez, who set a time good enough for second-fastest, but a crash for Brad Binder in Les Esse Bleu brought out yellow flags which cancelled that lap and meant his FP1 result was sixth.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh, ahead of the aforementioned Binder, while Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi rounded out the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from FP1 in France are below.