Bagnaia, Miller in Ducati qualifying one-two at French MotoGP

Francesco Bagnaia has taken pole position while Jack Miller made it a factory Ducati one-two in qualifying for the French MotoGP.

Joining the Ducati Lenovo Team duo on the front row at Le Mans will be Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro, while championship leader Fabio Quartararo was fourth-fastest on his Monster Energy Yamaha.

The fight for pole had essentially been a duel between Bagnaia and Quartararo a fortnight earlier at Jerez, and it was shaping up to be much the same at Le Mans.

The Yamaha man held sway at the end of the first runs of Qualifying 2 with a 1:30.688s, 0.011s up on his chief Ducati rival, while Miller sat seventh on a 1:31.314s.

On his second flyer back out of the pits, however, Bagnaia charged to an All Time Lap Record 1:30.450s, and towed his Australian team-mate to a 1:30.519s in the process.

Quartararo had no improvement on his opening run, and would be nudged off the front row when Aleix Espargaro set a 1:30.609s on his final lap.

Joining ‘El Diablo’ on the second row will be Gresini Ducati rider Enea Bastianini and Suzuki Ecstar’s Joan Mir.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) had qualified sixth-fastest but was slapped with a three-position grid penalty for impeding Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda) late in the session.

Row 3 will therefore be headed up by Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar), from Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) and Zarco, with Row 4 comprised of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Pol Espargaro, and Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda).

Martin and Mir had come from Qualifying 1, in which Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati) missed the top two by 0.007s.

Bezzecchi, who sprayed off the track and through the gravel at Turn 1 earlier in the session, is therefore set to start from 13th, while Tech3 KTM duo Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez qualifying 22nd and 24th respectively.

Race start is scheduled for Sunday at 22:00 AEST.

Qualifying: French MotoGP

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time	Gap 1st/prev	Session
1	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	1:30.450		Q2
2	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	1:30.519	0.069/0.069	Q2
3	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	1:30.609	0.159/0.090	Q2
4	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:30.688	0.238/0.079	Q2
5	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	1:30.711	0.261/0.023	Q2
6	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:30.863	0.413/0.152	Q2
7	36	Joan MIR	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:30.943	0.493/0.080	Q2
8	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:30.977	0.527/0.034	Q2
9	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:31.068	0.618/0.091	Q2
10	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:31.148	0.698/0.080	Q2
11	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:31.526	1.076/0.378	Q2
12	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	1:31.595	1.145/0.069	Q2
13	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	1:30.940	0.136	Q1
14	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	1:31.271	0.467/0.331	Q1
15	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	1:31.363	0.559/0.092	Q1
16	49	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	1:31.487	0.683/0.124	Q1
17	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:31.547	0.743/0.060	Q1
18	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:31.610	0.806/0.063	Q1
19	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:31.617	0.813/0.007	Q1
20	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	1:31.618	0.814/0.001	Q1
21	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	1:31.763	0.959/0.145	Q1
22	87	Remy GARDNER	AUS	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:31.820	1.016/0.057	Q1
23	40	Darryn BINDER	RSA	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	1:32.596	1.792/0.776	Q1
24	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:32.767	1.963/0.171	Q1

Note: Zarco three-position grid penalty