Fabio Quartararo Outpaces the Márquez Brothers with a Stunning Pole Position in Le Mans

Saturday morning dawned sunny with a pleasant temperature hovering around twenty degrees, a rare oasis in the ever-changing climate of Le Mans. Before the qualifying sessions, the final free practice of the weekend took place, lasting thirty minutes, where the French crowd witnessed Quartararo outpace Márquez for the first time in the classification, by just 66 thousandths, with rookie Fermín Aldeguer in third position. It was only a free session, but a prelude to a qualifying that would ignite the historic French circuit.

The Q1 repechage began with an incident, as only a few minutes in, Ai Ogura suffered a fall, fortunately without consequences for the rider, but it caused a red flag that halted the session with just over ten minutes remaining. This incident created tension in the already challenging Q1 because not all riders had completed a lap, and upon resumption, there was only time to fit a set of soft tyres.

Johann Zarco on the Honda (the only one in Q2) and Raúl Fernández on the Aprilia were the two fastest times that qualified for the battle for the top four rows of the grid. In a tightly contested Q1 where up to five riders finished within the same tenth, with Brad Binder, Álex Rins, Joan Mir starting from the fifth row of the grid, narrowly missing out. Luca Marini, Fabio Di Giannantonio (the only Ducati out of Q2), and Enea Bastianini will start from the sixth row, while Ogura will lead and miss out on the pole battle. The rest of the grid positions will be completed by Miguel Oliveira, Lorenzo Savadori, and Takaaki Nakagami.

Record after record

Marc Márquez wasted no time and led the Q2 from the start. On his first installation lap, he clocked a 1'30.0, just tenths off his own record set on Friday, and on his second lap, he shattered the clock with a time of 1'29.442, four-tenths faster than the absolute record at Le Mans. With that first set of tyres, the rider from Cervera was over three-tenths ahead of Quartararo, although the Frenchman had not yet had his final say.

Everyone returned to the pits to fit the last soft compound and give it their all. Then came the falls, first Fermín Aldeguer's with three minutes remaining, when the Murcian was second in the provisional standings with a great time. Then Zarco's, both causing yellow flags that forced some attempts to be cancelled.

Only one attempt remained, and seeing the sectors, Márquez and Quartararo were set to battle for the pole. But the Spaniard made a slight error in the final sector, preventing him from improving his time. So it was all in the hands of the Frenchman, who was right behind. He improved the Spaniard's record by a tenth with a stunning time of 1.29.324, securing his second consecutive pole. The Nice native had already achieved pole at the Jerez circuit. "Here I pushed more to the limit than in Jerez. It was incredible. A great lap, but we'll have to see in the sprint and race because Marc's pace is a bit above," acknowledged the Le Mans poleman.

Marc Márquez had to settle for second place on the grid, although he remains the favourite given his pace during practice with used tyres. Closing that front row will be his brother Álex, who reappeared in the decisive qualifying session after a quiet practice for the championship leader.

Two other Spaniards were in the second row, rookie Fermín Aldeguer, who maintained fourth position despite the fall, and Maverick Viñales, who continues his upward trend with KTM and, like Quartararo, aims to challenge the Ducatis. Pecco Bagnaia will close that second line, one of the losers of these official practices, who will have no choice but to make a comeback in both the sprint and the race.

From the third row, the Aprilia of Bezzecchi will start, alongside Miller's second Yamaha and Morbidelli's Ducati, which crashed in the final stages of Q2; and from the fourth, Raúl Fernández, the Frenchman Zarco, and Pedro Acosta, who is competing in this French GP with a sore right forearm, having undergone surgery for compartment syndrome after the Jerez round.