Quartararo flying in FP1, Rossi loses chain

Full FP1 results at the French MotoGP

Fabio Quartararo has picked up where he left off from Jerez by topping the opening practice session at his MotoGP home debut at Le Mans, while Valentino Rossi lost his Monster Yamaha’s chain midway through FP1.

After seeing Jack Miller and Marc Marquez head the times for the majority of the session, the soft tyre times in the closing minutes shook up the top order with Quartararo replicating his pole position effort from Jerez to grab the fastest time of 1m 31.986s on the Petronas Yamaha.

Both factory Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci followed suit on the late fast laps to slot into second and third respectively with an eye on the automatic Q2 spots in the top 10 as the weather forecast continues to threaten rain this weekend.

While the youngest rider on the MotoGP grid topped the times, it was an eventful session for the oldest rider Rossi who suffered a broken chain midway through FP1 which forced him briefly off track.

But using his second Monster Yamaha bike, Rossi ensured he grabbed a top 10 spot with his final lap in the session.

Rossi’s team-mate Maverick Vinales grabbed fourth place to cap a solid session for Yamaha despite Rossi’s chain mishap with three out of four in the top 10.

Marquez was shuffled down to fifth place late on for Repsol Honda just ahead of a strong showing from Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro in sixth place, with the Spanish rider using a carbon swingarm on his RC16.

Miller was another to be pushed down the pecking order late on in seventh place for Pramac Ducati but ahead of Suzuki’s Joan Mir and a resurgent Johann Zarco on the Red Bull KTM.

With Rossi rounding out the top 10, it saw LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow narrowly miss out ahead of Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas Yamaha.

Francesco Bagnaia produced a relatively low-key session in 13th place for Pramac Ducati but in front of Repsol Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo who suffered an early fall running wide on the kerbs at Turn 8.