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00:05welcome back to one of motorsports most iconic and historic venues on planet earth we are in
00:13le mans we are at the michelin grand prix of france in 2026 and up next it's going to be
00:19moto gp
00:20qualifying a heavyweight q1 session to kick off who was going to be our fifth pole sitter of 2026
00:28fabio quateraro can he make it back to back polls here in front of his home crowd he has just
00:35topped
00:35fp2 the 30 minute session to kick off a sprint saturday action in the premier class but he has
00:42got work to do to get himself out of q1 a q1 session which features anaya basti nini fellow ktm
00:49rider
00:49brad binder and reigning world champion mark marquez in q1 for the first time since the indonesian
00:55grand prix last october ralph fernandez jack miller luca marini was fastest on friday morning
01:00quateraro as mentioned morbidelli marrera rasgat lioglu aldeguer and jonas folga replacing the
01:07injured maverick finales they are your riders coming up in q1 as you can see on the graphic
01:11on the right hand side of your picture already safely through zarko 2025 french grand prix winner
01:17who's just ended fp2 in the gravel the crash for zarko at turn 13 not the way that he would
01:22have
01:23wanted to have kicked off sprint saturday the gel antonio bagnaya alex marquez juan mia martin
01:28betseki rins agura and acosta those are your 10 riders that don't have to worry about this upcoming
01:36q1 session and one is a beautiful saturday morning here in this part of northwest france
01:42and those home fans well they've already had some treats so far this weekend as mentioned joan zarko
01:48fastest in the full dry conditions on friday fabio quateraro dazzling this morning in fp2
01:55how long will the sunshine last though for here in france with tomorrow's forecast looking rather
02:03dodgy some rain potentially disrupting our fifth grand prix day of the campaign qualifying though
02:09ahead of a 13 lap tso sprint this afternoon fabio quateraro and mark marquez two of mother gp's
02:18modern day superstars their first big mission is to get themselves out of this tricky q1 session
02:24uncharted territory for mark marquez in 2026 as you can see there the last time he was in qualifying
02:29one was in lombok last year where he did go through to qualifying two was just about the only thing
02:35that
02:35went right for mark marquez that weekend of course picked up the injury on the sunday which they did
02:40change his 2025 and really his 2026 has been working his way back up to 100 physical fitness since then
02:48but with mark marquez in this session you'd normally just on pure reputation expect him to cruise through
02:54this q2 session but we've not seen an awful lot of evidence so far this weekend that he is going
02:59to do
03:00that he's certainly going to be in the frame to go through but there are plenty of other contenders
03:04that could spoil his morning bastianini ral fernandez who has already come through qualifying
03:10one to qualify in the front row in buriram this season marini on a very fast honda this weekend
03:15and we have to now after the events of free practice to throw fabio quateraro into the mix as well
03:20we certainly do fabio quateraro was brilliant this morning looking really sharp on michelin's soft
03:26rubber there is ral fernandez 14th fastest he was yesterday it was really really close behind pedro
03:34acosta in 10th place who just got into q2 by the skin of his teeth not even a 10th behind
03:40him was
03:42bastianini and they had just a hundredth clear of brad binder who was then in turn just 800th clear of
03:47mark marquez 400th further back then was ral fernandez it was not much in it at all in terms of
03:52deciding
03:53those top 10 yesterday modern it was top rack rasgatlioglu a couple of gamahas have been pretty
03:59quick so far here this weekend with alex rings directly through to q2 yesterday he might be
04:03struggling at the moment the wrong end of the leaderboard but top rack rasgatlioglu certainly
04:08not lacking support wherever we go in the world the three times world superbike champion coming up in this
04:14opening q1 session he was 20th quickest on day one yeah and he was kind of blaming himself yesterday for
04:20being as far as he was off the pace comparing to his teammate jack miller top rack was nine tenths
04:26of
04:26a second behind him looking to close that gap in this qualifying session top rack actually does lead
04:31jack miller 3-1 in the qualifying head-to-head down at pramac so here we go then mark marquez
04:39for the
04:39first time in 2026 for the first time as the rainy mother gp world champion this year has to go
04:46into
04:47what frankie morbidale so brilliantly described a couple of years ago q1 the jungle in a mother gp
04:52weekend but under beautiful clear blue skies it's clear track ahead of the number 93 as he's keen to
04:59get on with business here try and find an early lap he's got diogo morea for company these two of
05:06course
05:06very close off circuit training partners uh away from the glare of the mother gp field what could
05:14show me now the gear deliver as well it was a disappointing friday for the number 54 bk8
05:19grizzini racing rider 21st at the end of play yesterday as you saw from the replays this morning
05:25fp2 certainly not helped aldergaire by a front-end washout as he banked left through turn three
05:32and fabio cuotero then there's going to be massive cheers massive roars just for him leaving pit lane
05:38so imagine what it's going to be like if he does make it back-to-back pole positions here
05:42in le mans huge huge 15 minutes though coming up for the number 20. three times in the past he
05:49has
05:49been on pole for the french grand prix q2 would be an achievement on board that fracture of a hard
05:56way
05:56of course his teammate would await him alex rins made his way into q2 yesterday after tailing jorge martin
06:02to get himself a fast lap on the board can fabio cuotero book his place in the battle for pole
06:09position as we mentioned at the end of free practice two if anyone is capable of producing
06:14a magic single lap to put themselves in the battle for pole position you are looking at it he's only
06:20been in q2 once so far this season as fabio cuotero fourth he was on the grid and our first
06:26visit to
06:27brazilian over 20 years you know for yanja circuit followed that through to six in the sprints so
06:35then mark marquez as mentioned he's pretty keen to get on with business here he has got diogo
06:39morera on the lcr honda directly behind him mark was 16th in that earlier fp2 session but as we did
06:48mention he did find a high 130 which would have clearly put him very very close to fabio cuotero
06:54in that 30 minute session unfortunately for mark there was a more yellow flag troubles coming his
06:59way after the incident involving pekka bangar at la cipolle yesterday which is the reason why mark's
07:04in this opening 15 minute qualifying session it was our coach flashing turn 13 this morning
07:10which denied mark a top 10 feels like it's going to take a 129 to get yourself into qualifying to
07:16in
07:17this session yesterday 10th place which got a costa through was a 130.196 and we already saw
07:23low to mid 130s from cuotero in free practice too so expect low 30s if not high 29s to be
07:31the
07:32benchmark for a place in the battle for pole here well if fan power if support's going to get fabio
07:37cuotero in a q1 well there's an early mistake here for renea bastionini he has gone down in that first
07:43again into turns at three and four such an easy mistake to make there on that rc stick scene you're
07:50just trail braking scrubbing off so much speed 310 kilometers now you power through the long
07:56right hander of turn one and then you're all the way back down to uh second gear for that first
08:03again
08:03under 100k's so this is where mark's going to get a flash just about cleared we have got a 129
08:09and it's been
08:09fired in by the 93 a 129.988 and that's some opening salvo from mark marquez that's six and a
08:17half tenths faster than ral fernandez in second place mark did a 130.3 yesterday so he's almost
08:24found pretty much half a second compared to his best pace on friday that is the third fastest lap time
08:29of
08:29the weekend only zarko and jan antonio yesterday have been quicker than that so far this weekend this
08:35is a slowish lap for fabio cuotero i think he was behind bastionini at the start of the lap he
08:40was so
08:41cuotero will have been the first rider to hit those yellow flags down at the dunlop chicane mark marquez
08:46he's now down at garage fair as the rest of the field led by ralph fernandez tried to cut the
08:51gap to the
08:51rating world champion yeah it's a big gap a really big gap at the moment nearly 7 10 to the
08:56second
08:57end that was a brilliant start to this q1 session for mark marquez we follow him now attacking hard
09:05on the factory ducati going to the the blur s's it's a good lap coming in by ralph fernandez though
09:10fair play to the track out aprilia rider hot off track yesterday when his uh rsgp caught fire hot on
09:18circuit at the moment there's the spaniard what about marrera just trying to use mark as a reference
09:24a few yards further up the road mark marquez over the line a 130.020 so a 129.9 and
09:33a 130 flat from
09:34mark marquez as marini goes up in the second ralph fernandez though could be finding his best time
09:40of the weekend his first 129 he certainly does a 129.972 from ralph fernandez a spanish one two now
09:48led
09:48by fernandez and here comes fabio quateraro he's now out of garage there on the back straight down to
09:54shimano birth the first half of the lap very good for fabio quateraro it's this part of the lap with
09:59a
09:59straight down to the s's of shimano birth where he'll be praying that he gets every ounce of horsepower
10:05out of that v4 yamaha what kind of third sector has it been for fabio quateraro he's lost a tenth
10:10of a
10:10half now and he's going to need a magic final sector to get in amongst the spaniards up at the
10:14top
10:15he's at 51 front row starts in his mana gp career as fabio quateraro he would love
10:19to be in the hunt for a 50 second a little bit later on this morning through record amount we
10:24go
10:2511th quickest at the moment is quateraro powers the yamaha out of the final corner oh brilliant what a
10:30last sector what a last sector that was by quateraro he found a 129.967 five thousandths quicker than
10:39ralph fernandez but of course crucially this is the mark marquez out of the top two well i said it
10:44needed a magic final sector that's exactly what fabio quateraro delivered a 129.9 won't cut it for
10:52mark marquez or certainly not a 29.988 it was super close yesterday 21 thousandths of a second now cover
10:58the top three and at the moment in this game of musical chairs the music's in danger of stopping with
11:03mark marquez on his feet yeah the last time mark marquez started the grand prix in 13th place
11:11he was right here in the month 2024 this could be costly for renea bastionini we've heard so many
11:18riders talking about their the difficulty in generating temperature in the left hand side of that front
11:23tire and that just looked like there was not enough heat he's on the left hand side for renea
11:27that well that could really really prove costly for tech three in their home grand prix graceful slide
11:34into the gravel trap as far as the italian is concerned big big huddle around mark marquez an
11:42army of ducati engineers listening to his every word mark marquez it's so so close at the top
11:49two hundredths of a second covering your top three but it's marked that crucially at the moment is in p3
11:55which
11:55is not going to cut it for q2 and there's a big gap behind then to morbidelli fourth the 130
12:00.5
12:01for frankie morbidelli that would still be his best qualifying since the season opener in burra and
12:06marini fifth on the factory honda from marera good luck from marera that 30.7 to be just within a
12:12tenth of marini then it's miller and binder binder will be expecting a lot better than a 30.8 given
12:17that
12:18he did a 30.2 yesterday then we've got top rack folga and fermine aldeguer who hasn't said anything
12:24representative yet he's done a 32.9 of course we're yet to see any kind of lap time from an
12:29eight bastionini for the reasons you just saw well he's got the magic wand out once again here in
12:34le mans as near fabio cuotoraro fastest this morning fp2 that got the home crowd revved up on a bright
12:40saturday morning and they're singing themselves hoarse once again because fabio cuotoraro leads q1
12:49one more time attack left can he find an improvement on the 129.9 six seven some step forward that
12:58by
12:58cuotoraro half a second quicker than what he managed here yesterday great shot of him going through
13:05recordermont this is where he was utterly superb that final sector was one of the best final sectors
13:11he's he's ever produced here at the begathe circuit we could have both factory yamahas in the uh
13:18q2 session coming up shortly cuotoraro then is heading out for his second time attack so too
13:24is mark marquez two hundredths splitting cuotoraro fernandez and mark marquez which two of those trio
13:32are going to find themselves in the hunt for pole here in france yeah you're right as it stands we'd
13:36have
13:36half of the quartet of yamahas in q2 but we'd also as it stands only have half of the six
13:41ducatis
13:42in qualifying two of course dejan antonio bagnay and alex marquez they're already safely through to
13:47qualifying two but at the moment neither mark marquez frankie momodele nor firmin aldeguer are on course
13:53to join them yeah i've got to say aldeguer looks a bit lost so far this weekend just has not
13:58had the pace
13:59at all 23rd he was yesterday at the moment on that opening run in q1 something happened to him
14:06maybe some yellow flag troubles or just couldn't find a lap but he's static stand at the moment behind
14:11jonas folguern set to start the grand prix in last place yeah he's gone for a slightly different
14:16strategy to the rest of the group who he calls it together on the racetrack mark marquez is trying
14:20to find himself a good spot on the racetrack up ahead now veneer bastione marrera once again
14:25locked onto his rear tire aldeguer with no representative lap time on the board can't
14:30afford to wait around he's gone early to try and get himself a lap time on the board and lift
14:34himself
14:34up the back row trying to avoid some yellow flag dramas late on quateraro then building up temperature
14:40in that new michelin soft rear tire so so good as we've saw previously in that final sector
14:48as mentioned if it's van paul that's going to get him in a q1 he's got no issues whatsoever
14:52because the french fans are loving this they are roaring they are willing quateraro onto a fight for
14:58a second pole position in two years here in the mall what about aldeguer then let's see what he can
15:03do
15:03moves up a couple of places finds a high 130 130.838 to be precise as fabio quateraro is once
15:10again
15:11on the money fastest time the weekend so far a 129.907 from his fellow frenchman zarko well that's coming
15:19in
15:19some throw here from quateraro into the museum corner he goes yeah mark marquez looks like he's
15:25got a bit of clear tarmac he's ahead of marrero but behind jack miller quateraro then into the second
15:31sector mark marquez is a huge first sector the world champion is rising to a pretty steep challenge up
15:36ahead of him how many times have we said this down the years you write him off at your peril
15:42this could be a
15:43bit of a goal post mover as far as the field is concerned if mark can make this a clean
15:48lap because
15:48he's absolutely destroyed that first sector what a first sector that is and by the world champion
15:53he's getting better as well in the second split down into garage there he goes look how hard he's
15:59pushing the front end of that factory ducati missing front feeling i don't think so he's not missing
16:04commitment is he no question about it he's launching that ducati into these breaking zones quateraro is not
16:10going slowly as you can see up ahead he's going to move the goal post down to a sort of
16:13mid to high
16:1429 but mark marquez could be in danger of an all-time lap record here comes quateraro down to a
16:1929 7
16:20can mark marquez beat it he's in danger of demolishing it into the blur s's goes mark then now
16:26through the left-hander of 12 we'll be back to the first gear double right-hander of record him on
16:31here he is then on the factory ducati full attack mode full commitment this by the number 93
16:38over the line he will come shortly 129.288 and of absolutely nowhere out of nowhere mark marquez
16:48has just produced the fastest ever moto gp lap of le mans look at peco bagnaya peco bagnaya and
16:55davide tardotzi on the other side of that factory ducati garage they can't quite believe what we have just
17:00witnessed a special rider a special talent a special lap time well he was faced with a challenge
17:06which we weren't sure he had the answer to boy is he provided i mean extraordinary emphatic answer
17:12there faster than fabio quateraro's pole time of last year he's four tenths clear at the field now
17:17quateraro's like was special enough to do a 29 7 and that has moved the goal post into a practically
17:23a
17:23different stadium from mark marquez he is walking through to q2 with that brilliant
17:29you just have to dock your cap and say chapeau to mark marquez looks like he's going to certainly
17:35be in the fight for a 76 mother gp pole position coming up in q2 what can ral fernandez do
17:42because
17:42he's going to make up a whole chunk of time to threaten quateraro's second place he's over a
17:47quarter of a second behind the frenchman a quarter of a second he's adrift as you can see at the
17:52moment
17:52on this current lap not out of it is fernandez we know how good the april has been in the
17:57last sector
17:58but unfortunately looks like this slap's going to go away for fernandez he's going to get one more
18:02comes through some pretty heavy traffic there in this final split too i think a shout out top rack's
18:06gone fourth on the pramac yamaha he's another 30.4 top rack and miller are fourth and fifth now on
18:12the
18:12pramac yamaha then it's bastionini morvideli and marini maria right now goes fourth splits the
18:17pramac yamaha's a personal best for ral fernandez but he's still a 10.5 short and that's looked like
18:21it's the end of his qualifying session i love that shot that that grid in the ducati garage from
18:26from pekka bagnaya he knows he knows how good that 129.288 was from mark marquez marquez quite rightly so
18:35probably feels like that's job done he peels into pick lane that's q1 over as far as the 93 is
18:41concerned
18:42special special that that an all-time that record then delivered by mark marquez it looks like at
18:47the moment with 60 seconds of the session remaining it will be fabio quateraro going into q2 which means
18:54much to the delight of the home crowd it will be quateraro and zarko and one or two of the
18:5912 riders
19:00will be in the hunt for our fifth pole position of the season mark marquez he was the first sector
19:06it was just absolutely out of this world wasn't he was already up by almost three and a half cents
19:11in
19:12sector one and then just carried on that momentum still fabio quateraro has the upper hand in the
19:16last sector yeah quateraro is not going to be troubled it wouldn't appear certainly at the moment
19:21the only rider improving and setting personal best as it stands is luca marini but he's already three
19:26quarters of a second down so it might move him up to fourth up ahead of morbidelli and top rack
19:31but marini's
19:32not going to be threatening q2 on this current lap it's going to be i guess crucial to see if
19:36any
19:36riders get over the line in the next 10 seconds to have one more shot at this mark marquez explaining
19:42to his crew you can see there with a headset to his left on the right of our picture is
19:47his crew chief
19:48mark of rigamonte just down the bottom of your picture the uh the very distinctive grey mop of hair
19:54on top of gigi delinia as martin just explains how he delivered that 129.288 the fastest ever
20:04lap around this 4.19 kilometer le mans circuit he had to find something special and when he needed it
20:11boy did he deliver something special yeah the two mudder gp world champions in this session both
20:17explaining to the world why they're world champions mark marquez and fabio quattoraro
20:23look like they're the two riders to go through and that reaction the reaction from peko bagnaya who's
20:29just in amazement but davide tardozzi who has seen plenty in his long career as a team manager even he
20:35is amazed by that bagnaya looks across to christian gabarini his crew chief and just goes has he really
20:40just done that how's he just done that for some context mark marquez yesterday 130.371 he's got
20:49about 1.1 seconds faster just amazing amazing performance once again yeah as he said a moment
20:56ago write him off at your peril marini did go fourth by the way on the factory honda he's 1
21:01.1
21:02seconds though behind mark marquez which tells you what kind of a special like mark did we've got
21:06bastianini currently out there setting personal best but these french fans needn't worry about
21:11bastianini threatening their home hero fabio quattoraro also give a shout out to him as impressive as
21:18mark was being quattoraro every bit is impressive he does join his compatriot john zarko in qt yeah the
21:24riders 13th and 17th then on practice friday are the two riders that are going to be still
21:30in the hunt for pole position here in le mans fabio quattoraro i don't know are we sensing that
21:38he's going to deliver something super special once again the pole lap he produced here last year and
21:43the reception that he got from the french fans well it just put goosebumps all over your body it was
21:50something super special something it was a privilege to be part of that pole lap he put together here last
21:56year and thankfully for quattoraro fans he's still in the hunt uh for what potentially would be his
22:0322nd motor gp pole position i wonder if he's looking at mark marquez's sector one time there on the
22:09screens because that's where all the time was between mark marquez and quattoraro's a four-tenth gap
22:13mark won three of those over his fellow world champion in the first sector and if you told ral fernandez
22:19when
22:19the session began that he'd do a 129 885 he'd probably thought that was good enough for qualifying
22:25two in the end it was a tenth and a half short and that was a big jump forward from
22:29fernandez as
22:30well he was six tenths quicker than his time attack yesterday afternoon i mean what else could he really
22:35do that's a a big leap forward in terms of performance from the track out of brilli rider but unfortunately
22:40not good enough to get himself into that second qualifying session so for the third time in the
22:48opening five grand prix's fernandez finds himself starting outside of the top 10 work to do for him
22:54in the sprint and the grand prix tomorrow just a quick reminder as always the tiso sprint over
22:5913 laps that'll be lights out and we'll be racing over 13 laps 27 laps will be the full distance
23:08french
23:08grand prix here tomorrow yeah both rookies doing pretty solid jobs has to be said in that q1 session
23:14marrera here on street eighth so he'll start 18th on the grid uh for the sprint later on and top
23:21up rascati just added him in seventh place he out qualifies his teammate jack miller for the fourth
23:26consecutive grand prix but it is mark marquez who tops q1 with a new all-time lap record what
23:33on earth are we going to see in q2 next quateraro also through in second place second time this year
23:38we've seen him in q2 joining his teammate rins of course ralph fernandez third from bastianini
23:43who had that spill at the start of the session marini fifth from morbideli toprak and marrera jack
23:48miller ninth firmin aldeguer's miserable weekend continues 20th him brad binder is second from the back
23:54a 30.8 for him on the factory ktm he's only got jonas folga on the second tech three ktm
24:00behind him
24:02tough times right now for the south african firmin aldeguer a double podium finisher here last year
24:07he's going to be starting the grand prix from 20th place to sprint two tough tough weekend here in
24:13france for the guzzini racing rider a tough weekend so far for mark marquez wasn't it pre that q1 session
24:20but he delivered something extra special a new all-time lap record to cruise into q2
24:27also going through the home crowd hero fabio quateraro mark marquez fabio quateraro into q2
24:34the mouth-watering fight for pole position is up next live here in le mans don't go anywhere and we
24:40will find out who will be on pole position for the michelin grand prix of france
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