MotoGP

MotoGP French GP: Martin leads Acosta in opening practice

Published

1w ago

May 10, 2024 / 6041 Views

Martin comes into this weekend’s fifth round of the 2024 campaign 17 points clear in the standings after a crash out of the lead of the Spanish GP denied him the chance to move 47 out of reach.

Run under perfect conditions, the 45-minute FP1 session was led by the Pramac rider with a 1m31.421s lap set on a fresh soft rear tyre.

One of only a handful of riders to do so on FP1, Martin led the way by 0.237 seconds from Tech3 GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales completed the top three after a late time attack on a new medium rear, with Ducati’s Enea Bastianini fourth from world champion team-mate Framcesco Bagnaia.

Martin set the initial pace in FP1 with a 1m34.162s, before Marc Marquez on the Gresini Ducati took over with a 1m33.242s inside the first five minutes of the session.

Top spot would swap between Marquez, VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi, Bagnaia and Bastianini.

With 10 minutes of the session gone, Marquez stood top with a 1m31.971s, with Bastianini taking over with a 1m31.914s with 18 minutes to go.

The 2022 French GP winner would improve on this to a 1m31.837s, which was briefly toppled by a 1m31.637s from Acosta.

However, this was cancelled after the Tech3 rider exceeded track limits and it forced him to find a 1m31.658s to legitimately move to the top of the pile in the closing moments.

Electing to run a new soft rear tyre for the final few minutes, Martin lit up the timing screens and fired in a 1m31.421s to see out the session fastest of all.

Acosta held onto second, surviving a late scare at the Turn 6 right-hander when he tucked the front of his GasGas-branded KTM.

Vinales jumped up to third with a 1m31.678s, with Bastianini heading Bagnaia and Gresini’s Alex Marquez.

Aleix Espargaro was seventh on the second factory Aprilia from KTM’s Brad Binder, who crashed late on at Turn 11.

Marc Marquez and last year’s French GP winner Bezzecchi rounded out the top 10.

Alex Rins was the leading Yamaha in 13th as team-mate Fabio Quartararo was a low-key 20th at the start of his home round aboard the M1’s new chassis.

Johann Zarco opened up his home race as top Honda in 16th on the LCR bike, while the factory team duo of Joan Mir and Luca Marini occupied the final two spots.

MotoGP French GP - FP1 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	20	1'31.421		174.918
2	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	21	+0.237 1'31.658	0.237	174.465
3	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	20	+0.257 1'31.678	0.020	174.427
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	19	+0.416 1'31.837	0.159	174.125
5	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	20	+0.431 1'31.852	0.015	174.097
6	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	20	+0.475 1'31.896	0.044	174.014
7	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	19	+0.490 1'31.911	0.015	173.985
8	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	20	+0.521 1'31.942	0.031	173.927
9	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	21	+0.550 1'31.971	0.029	173.872
10	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	17	+0.559 1'31.980	0.009	173.855
11	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	20	+0.614 1'32.035	0.055	173.751
12	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	22	+0.649 1'32.070	0.035	173.685
13	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	21	+0.691 1'32.112	0.042	173.606
14	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	20	+0.800 1'32.221	0.109	173.400
15	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	20	+0.865 1'32.286	0.065	173.278
16	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	19	+0.982 1'32.403	0.117	173.059
17	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	22	+1.012 1'32.433	0.030	173.003
18	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	17	+1.125 1'32.546	0.113	172.791
19	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	21	+1.164 1'32.585	0.039	172.719
20	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	21	+1.277 1'32.698	0.113	172.508
21	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	19	+1.587 1'33.008	0.310	171.933
22	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	23	+1.929 1'33.350	0.342	171.303
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