MotoGP French GP: Miller tops FP1, Marquez crashes on return

After a fairly anonymous start to the opening 45-minute practice of the weekend, Miller wound things up on fresh soft rubber in the closing stages of FP1 to produce a 1m31.449s.

This cemented his top spot as the chequered flag flew, but only by 0.095 seconds from VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini, while Miller's KTM team-mate Brad Binder completed the top three.

Having been absent since fracturing his right hand in a crash in the Portuguese GP, Marc Marquez made his long-awaited return to action on Friday morning at Le Mans.

He crashed early on in FP1 when he lost the front end of his Honda going into Turn 11, and eventually ended the session 12th.

The headline of FP1 at the start of the session was Honda bringing the Kalex chassis it first tested at Jerez two weeks ago for both Joan Mir and Marquez to try on a grand prix weekend.

Both began the session on the older frame, with Marquez forced to switch to the Kalex chassis for the remainder of the session when he crashed just under 15 minutes in.

By this stage of the session, VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi led the way with a 1m32.825s.

This would stand as the benchmark until championship leader Francesco Bagnaia fired in a 1m32.555s with 21 minutes to go.

He improved on his next lap to a 1m32.504s, and again with a 1m32.332s to head into the soft tyre time attack phase at the end of FP1 as the rider to beat.

A frenetic end to the session saw Aprilia's Maverick Vinales, home favourite Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha and Bezzecchi take turns leading the times.

But Miller's 1m31.449s would be too much for anyone to challenge. Trailed by Marini and Binder, Johann Zarco was fourth on the Pramac Ducati in front of his home crowd.

Alex Marquez completed the top five on his Gresini Ducati from Mir, who set his 1m31.800s on the Kalex chassis.

A late improvement for Aleix Espargaro on the factory Aprilia lifted him to seventh from Bezzecchi and Vinales, with Bagnaia rounding out the top 10.

This came at the expense of Quartararo, who slipped to 11th and 0.497s off the pace at the chequered flag in a session in which he back-to-backed chassis on his M1.

Marc Marquez was 12th on his Kalex chassis with a 1m31.973s, the eight-time world champion heading Yamaha's Franco Morbidelli, Tech3's Augusto Fernandez and LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami – who suffered a small fire on his RC213V midway through the session.

Danilo Petrucci was 19th on his return to MotoGP as Enea Bastianini's injury relief at Ducati, with Miguel Oliveira's RNF Aprilia stand-in Lorenzo Savadori 0.805s adrift in 20th.

Raul Fernandez on the sister RNF bike completed just three laps in the session and has decided to withdraw from the rest of the French GP having encountered too much pain in his right arm following arm pump surgery last week.

Cla	Rider		Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Jack Miller		KTM	20	1'31.449
2	Luca Marini		Ducati	20	1'31.544	0.095
3	Brad Binder		KTM	19	1'31.667	0.218
4	Johann Zarco		Ducati	19	1'31.764	0.315
5	Alex Marquez		Ducati	21	1'31.787	0.338
6	Joan Mir		Honda	21	1'31.800	0.351
7	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	20	1'31.802	0.353
8	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	20	1'31.872	0.423
9	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	20	1'31.890	0.441
10	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	17	1'31.915	0.466
11	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	20	1'31.946	0.497
12	Marc Marquez		Honda	17	1'31.973	0.524
13	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	21	1'32.153	0.704
14	Augusto Fernandez		KTM	20	1'32.174	0.725
15	Takaaki Nakagami		Honda	18	1'32.265	0.816
16	Jorge Martin		Ducati	21	1'32.296	0.847
17	Fabio Di Giannantonio		Ducati	14	1'32.710	1.261
18	Alex Rins		Honda	20	1'32.909	1.460
19	Danilo Petrucci		Ducati	18	1'33.168	1.719
20	Lorenzo Savadori		Aprilia	18	1'33.973	2.524
21	Jonas Folger		KTM	18	1'34.766	3.317
22	Raúl Fernández		Aprilia	3
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