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00:03Looking magnificent in the glorious Saturday morning sunshine is the Bugatti circuit here
00:10in Le Mans as we get set for qualifying. Q2 over 15 minutes coming up shortly here to find out
00:18who
00:18will be on pole position in this year's Michelin Grand Prix of France. The action yesterday which
00:25was topped by Joan Zarko was played out in front of Moda GP's biggest ever Friday crowd. The French
00:33fans they really do love their Moda GP don't they? Almost 80,000 per trackside here yesterday and they
00:40went home happy after Joan Zarko set the fastest time as he looks to make it back-to-back wins
00:45in
00:45the French Grand Prix. Coming up next though this should be spicy this should be spectacular shouldn't
00:52it as Marc Marquez the reigning world champion and Fabio Quattararo have both just come through
00:59Q1 and they are in the hunt at fourth pole position which will also feature Joan Zarko, Fabio
01:06de Gian Antonio, Pekka Bagnay, Alex Marquez the Spanish Grand Prix winner, Joan Mir, Jorge Martín,
01:13Marco Betsechi the world championship leader, Alex Rins both factory Yamahas in Q2 for the first time
01:20this season. Ayagura was ninth biggest yesterday ahead of Pedro Acosta. So those are your twelve,
01:27your dozen who are going to be fighting for pole position number five so far in 2026.
01:35Polls this season for Marco Betsechi, two polls for Fabio de Gian Antonio and one for Marc Marquez in that
01:42dramatic damp qualifying session in Jerez a couple of weeks ago. Very very different conditions here in Le Mans,
01:50as the French fans soak up some beautiful Saturday morning sunshine, perfect conditions,
01:58ideal conditions, the stage is set for what we hope there's going to be some spectacle here
02:04in qualifying in MotoGP. Fabio Quattararo looking for his fourth MotoGP pole in front of his home crowd,
02:13the roofs on those grandstands will get lifted off if Quattararo or Zarco can get the job done in this
02:19upcoming Q2 session. Bit of drama we have to say at the end of FP2 this morning, Fabio Quattararo was
02:26fastest, it's been some Saturdays so far for the factory Yamaha rider, fastest in FP2, second to Marc Marquez in
02:32Q1.
02:34Joan Zarco was pretty strong in that FP2 session but he did end it on the floor, a late crash
02:39at turn 13
02:40for the LCR Honda rider. He knows what it takes to be on pole though in front of his home
02:45crowd,
02:46pole position here back in 2018, he was the first French rider to start a MotoGP race on home soil
02:53from
02:53pole since Christian Saron at Paul Ricard in 1988, nearly 80 000 then French fans packed into Le Mans
03:02yesterday, I'd imagine it's going to be into what six figures for Saturday and Sunday, are we going to
03:08get yet another all-time Le Mans record crowd? Can we beat the 311 797 fans that packed into Le
03:17Mans
03:17last year? Those that are here this morning have already seen something very very special from both
03:23Marc Marquez and from Fabio Quattararo. Luis, I think the best is still to come, this should be a mega
03:31mega
03:31Q2 session. 129.2 from Marc Marquez to break the lap record and book his place in the pole position
03:37shootout, dare we even begin to suspect of a 128 in this Q2 session? I don't think we can really
03:45rule out
03:45anything after what we've seen in qualifying one, I have to say, I haven't been this excited for a Q2
03:51session in quite some time, the top 10 yesterday were covered by less than three tenths of a second
03:57in the sprint era of MotoGP, it was the closest ever Friday afternoon practice session, if we get
04:03anything close to that in Q2 this is going to be quite a session. Fabio D'Antonio is having a
04:11bit of a
04:11qualifying purple patch so far in 2026, pole position on a South and North American swing in
04:18Guayana and Austin and then he was on the front row of the grid last time out as well at
04:23the Spanish
04:23Grand Prix in Jerez, has not yet started lower than fourth on the grid so far this year, Fabio D
04:29'Antonio,
04:29so he's been able to get some performance out of Michelin's soft rear type so far this season
04:35and we know that this man can, three times already a pole starter in front of his home crowd, there
04:42been a few concerned French fans last night when they saw Fabio stuck down in 17th place but as he
04:49so
04:49often does all around the world but particularly here in Le Mans he has found some special laps
04:55so far this morning and you just know if anybody can, if anybody can come out of Q1, if anybody
05:01can come
05:02from 17th on a Friday and stats pole position, Quattararo can. Yeah you saw that pole position time that he
05:08set back in 2021 that would put you at the back of the grid this year in MotoGP because the
05:13incredible
05:14rate of development these motorcycles have moved on so much over the years this of course the last year of
05:20the
05:201000cc era in MotoGP and we are already talking in lap record terms, Marc Marquez breaking the lap record in
05:28qualifying one, if he matches that in qualifying two will that be enough for another pole position
05:34back-to-back poles of course Marc Marquez is chasing but he's got threats coming from four different
05:40manufacturers, Yamaha of course represented with Rins and Quattararo, Aprilia of course are going to be
05:50representing Honda. No stranger to pole position in Le Mans himself, busy the number 93 Marc Marquez, four
05:55times he's been on pole here in Le Mans, he took his first ever pole position in world championship
06:01racing all the way back in 2009 when he was a 125cc rider, oh that was tight, yeah that was
06:08a
06:09running into the back of Dejan Antonio as they're jockeying for some space on this out lap, Marc and Alex
06:15Marquez together at the front of the field is Alex leading Marc and as he did yesterday, Alex Rins has
06:20certainly been clever on this out lap, he's positioned himself right behind the new lap record holder, yeah
06:25yesterday it was Martin that dragged Alex Rins around Le Mans into a direct spot in Q2 for the first
06:30time
06:31since the Malaysian Grand Prix in Topang last year, so here we go then, time attacks fully engaged
06:39who's hot and who's not this morning here in Le Mans in this Q2 session, there is Joanne Zarco
06:45LCR Honda Star, if it is wet tomorrow, which it could well be, if you believe the forecast
06:50you might get a fair amount of rain hitting this part of North West fans tomorrow, which could play
06:55into the hands of Joanne Zarco, so much expectation on the shoulders of the 35 year old after his heroics
07:04here one year ago, we've already seen some heroics from Marc Marquez in Q1 this morning, Fabio Quattroaro
07:10preferring to sort of, sit back, wait for the field to enter the circuit and then just go about his
07:16business, make sure that there's going to be nobody impeding him, as we pick up the Marquez
07:21brothers are now accelerating hard out of the Garage Vare corner, Alex Emerson slightly wide on the way out of
07:27Garage Vare, but it's all about getting the best possible run there, down the straight to Shaman Oberth, Alex Rins
07:32is
07:33keeping touch, he's keeping up with the Marquez brothers up ahead of him, we know it's going to take
07:37something in the low 29s here to take a pole position and it is Marc as this lap unfolds, just
07:43closing in on the back of his younger brother. 129.288 was Marc's all-time lap record in the earlier
07:50Q1
07:51session, two corners remain, the double right-hander record him on, let's see what the lap times are going
07:56to be recorded by both Alex and Marc Marquez, here we go and this is your reference straight away, Marc
08:01Marquez
08:02with a 130.760, bettered immediately by Dijan Antonio, first ride then did you in Q2 into the 29s.
08:10Yeah we'd have been super impressed by that about half an hour ago, but of course we've already seen
08:14the lap, six tenths quicker than that, but as it stands at the moment as someone's gone straight on,
08:18I think in the gravel trap there at turn two, we'll catch a glimpse hopefully soon of who that was,
08:22but we saw the dust being kicked up, it is Dijan Antonio at the moment from Pedro Acosta,
08:27Mir, very early stages of this Q2 session goes on to the front row of the grid in third.
08:32Was it Acosta who was off-roading? I think it might well have been, it certainly was,
08:35yeah there he goes, now this is scary, he's coming through that first corner in Le Mans at over 300
08:41kilometres an hour, he's done a real good job there Acosta, making sure the one he stays on two
08:45wheels through that gravel, long long gravel trap through that first corner, and here you can see he was
08:50having a long long look to his right hand side just to make sure that he was returned to the
08:54track
08:54safely, not causing any sort of impeding to other riders in pursuit, as we have Alex versus Mark in
09:02this early battle for the front row, a front row which at the moment, very very early stages, is
09:07the Dijan Antonio versus Acosta versus Mir, look at this by Martin, some lap that's been produced by
09:13the Aprilia start. Alex Marquez also a very good third sector for him, he's putting a bit of space
09:17between himself now and Mark Marquez, Betzecchi has also mullered the third sector, Betzecchi's a
09:22quarter of a second up now on 500 Gian Antonio, the Aprilia's are starting to nosey into the action
09:27now, they are. Philip Ireland 2024, Jorge Martins last mother GP pole position of course when he was on the
09:34Pramac Ducati on that particular occasion, over the line he got up into second, Betzecchi though does lead,
09:40so two factory aprilies then have jumped onto the front row, a 129.825 from Bez, the world
09:47championship leader of course, 11 points clear of Martin going into this afternoon sprint, that's
09:53Marco Betzecchi's best time of the weekend so far and it's put him on course potentially for what
09:58would be pole position number 11 in MotoGP. Thanks for since the opening weekend of the season in Buriram,
10:05there's still plenty of fireworks to come yet though in this Q2 session, not only any slower still than Mark
10:10was in Q1 but they're also still slower than Quattararo was second quickest in qualifying one so
10:16understandably I guess every rider making sure that they get themselves a lap time on the board
10:20we're going to see some serious risks taken in the second months to come. We talked about this Q2
10:27purple patch that the Gian Antonio is currently on, it looks like he might be extending it as well,
10:33three successive front row starts for Digia, although as we heard from Pablo Nieto when he spoke
10:38to Jack yesterday down in pit lane, he's doing a phenomenal job in qualifying that incident
10:44involving the Gian Antonio and Acosta, this was on the out lap, this is coming on the exit of Shimano
10:49Berth,
10:49there is Digia behind the 42 bike of Alex Rins. I think Digi does the right thing here, he pulls
10:54off the line
10:54and of course Acosta does the same and nearly runs into the back of him there on their out laps
10:59there,
10:59so it would feel slightly harsh if they put in the sort of penalty of place. I guess Digian Antonio,
11:05you could argue he's still very much in the heart of the corner there at Shimano Berth, the right hander
11:09of turn 10 and yeah Pedro Acosta runs into the back of him there, both of them could be in
11:14some serious
11:15issues with physicality, so you don't want to see any collisions at any stage of qualifying, much less on the
11:20out lap, so the stewards will have a close look at that and decide whether any penalties are required.
11:25No problemo though for Marco Batsecki, his opening run delivers a 129.825 which sees him at the moment
11:33top of what is another supremely close front row. The times have been so so tight throughout this
11:40French Grand Prix weekend so far, there are not even six hundredths of a second splitting Bez,
11:46Vigian Antonio and Martin. Bit of a gap then back to Joan Mir who as it stands would head the
11:53second
11:53row in fourth place. Marc Marquez after his utter brilliance in Q1 finds himself as it stands after
12:00the opening run in this Q2 session in six. No time registered so far by his factory Ducati
12:07teammate Pecco Bagniai, we've seen nothing from the Italian at the moment. Yeah we've not had any
12:12yellow flags or anything out there so clearly just didn't get it right on his first run, he did a
12:1535.5
12:16which then got deleted, he clearly took a shortcut on that lap and John Zarco is the rider next ahead
12:22of him in the 11th place too. Zarco's only done a 31.0 so far on his first run so
12:27clearly some time to be
12:29found if Zarco is going to match his exploits of yesterday. Yeah and if he's down on the 11th place,
12:35if he's
12:36outside the top 10 he's going to be doing a rain dance tonight that's for sure that's really really
12:40tough big ask for Zarco to be in the victory battle in the podium battle if he finds himself on
12:46that
12:46fourth row of the grid. A completely different race though isn't it if we are going to get the
12:52rain that has been predicted since we jumped off the plane here in France on Wednesday the forecast
12:59throughout have suggested some rain disruption uh here in Le Mans throughout the weekend we're about
13:04200 kilometers uh southwest of the beautiful capital city of Paris. Although if you like our
13:10wins John Zarco who did win from 11th on the grid last year. Yeah he's going to be playing the
13:15music
13:15there's going to be some tunes in his motorhome tonight there's going to be some serious rain dancing
13:19of course he'll be trying to rectify it that fourth row position as it stands at the moment
13:25I'm sure he was just of course the last time Zarco was out on track he did crash at the
13:30end of FP2 so
13:31he wasn't exactly going to go straight back out and go Gunko there's the message Zarco did it
13:37boy did he do it did he get the business done here last year the race of 2025 for so
13:44many people he
13:44says he gets stopped all around the world it doesn't matter where he is Sepang, Phillip Island all
13:50over the world whenever a MotoGP fan claps eyes on Joe Anzarko the first thing that they mention to him
13:56is Le Mans 2025 and quite rightly so because it was an occasion not not not just a race it
14:04was an
14:05occasion which even just talking about it now sort of sends shivers down the spine we certainly hope we
14:10get just the same amount of drama here tomorrow well anytime we get the benefit of q and a's for
14:15some of our guests here at the circuit or just general interviews and we mention it to joan just
14:19a smile a beaming smile just comes over his face at the very mention of Le Mans last year a
14:24very
14:24tense Lucho Cechinello he looks more nervous than he did on the last lab last year it's saturday
14:28morning Lucho what's he going to be like this afternoon and in the grand prix here tomorrow
14:33a lot of people are going to be keeping a close eye on Lucho Cechinello he's a bit of a
14:37weather app
14:37specialist isn't he he was influential in making the right calls pre grand prix here last year yeah
14:43gone are the days of putting a truckie in the nearest field a kilometer away and
14:47more telling us when the rain is falling it's much more sophisticated nowadays no further action
14:52taken after reviewing the dijan Antonio in a cluster incident and uh given that happened on an outlap
14:56on the side of qualifying i think that's fair enough once again the aprilies in sector one are just
15:01lighting it up iagura i've lost count how many times i've seen a red sector next to iagura's name
15:08through that first split throughout this weekend good job so far by the japanese rider on course for
15:13a season best seconder as it stands right now but just as he did in q1 starting to pick up
15:20some serious
15:21pace some serious speed right now there's the 93 and mark marquez into the museum corner just what 50 70
15:29yards up the road is his teammate pecker banyaya martin also looking good on the factory aprilie once
15:35again overall best first sectors for a costa dijan Antonio banyaya agora martin and mark marquez
15:41mark marquez the strongest though through the second sector is he threatening another low 129
15:47he's looking so so good go through the gearbox you can see there with the left foot
15:51as he came out of garage vent the cat here a little bit unsettled sideways on the brakes just an
15:56indicator of
15:57how hard mark is pushing that gp26 still keeping tabs here with banyaya ahead of him this is going
16:04to be the first time we're going to see a recorded by pecker back now where will this take the
16:09italian
16:10martin goes second boy martin's found another high 129 129.847 that's put jorge martin and a
16:18pretty one two on the grid as he stands right now for how much longer over the line mark goes
16:23banyaya is
16:24fourth mark marquez back into p1 top in q1 top in q2 oh super close to jan antonio matches it
16:31on a 29.6
16:32alex marquez he's had a crash alex marquez is somewhere in the first sector is it the dunlop
16:38chicane where his teammate crashed yesterday the answer is yes quateraro goes up to fourth on the factory
16:43yamaha which is brilliant here is alex marquez this is joey's coffee exactly just lay over the replay
16:51from his teammate firman out of the gate yesterday yeah you can just see alex there he's just concerned
16:57he slides uh through the runoff area lost it going through turn three and then came back onto the
17:03circuit at turn four well fabio the jan antonio and mark marquez have got a bit of previous uh so
17:09far
17:10in 2026 in their battle to be top ducati so far this season and you know fabio did antonio saying
17:17i don't care who you are seven times world champion i'm having this piece of tarmac yeah i'm coming
17:22through and is mark marquez now just going to sit on his rear tire and follow to jan antonio no
17:26he's
17:26going to try and come through this is essentially slow laps that they're on they're not really pushing
17:30so here's mark marquez this is through la chapelle alex marquez is on the right hand side and
17:35did jan antonio he wants this piece of time because you mentioned straight into mark marquez has to pick the
17:39caddy up again love it love it this is what we want to see digi's back ahead he is fabio
17:47the
17:47jan antonio he's gone toe to toe with mark marquez on so many occasions did you just rolled out over
17:53there then he allowed mark to sweep on through into turn 13 and now mark in turn he backs out
17:59of it
17:59going through the final corner so a little bit of mind games at play here as well in terms of
18:06the
18:06games on circuit it's mark marquez that is on course for the 76th career pole position he's on
18:12course for back-to-back poles after his brilliance in heref a 129.646 the jan antonio in second
18:21five hundredths further back but seki still on that front row the world championship leader of course
18:26yeah jan antonio didn't nail the first sector and he's already rolled out of that one he's now going to
18:30i guess reset and go for one more attempt here comes ayagura though once again super fast in the
18:35first sector but he's not able to sustain that we're now into the fourth sector as he rounds the
18:40espoil this could though put him onto the front row of the grid which would be uncharted territory for
18:43agura
18:46so so good agura isn't he in sector one love to find out the tricks of his tray going through
18:52there
18:52because he's just unrivalled is he going to be on the front row of the grid this will be some
18:56story for
18:57track out of brillia and for ayagura over on he goes picks up a couple of places into six back
19:03on that
19:03second row goes the former mother two world champion he's found a 129 on a 129.888 here come a
19:11pair of
19:11italians who are threatening the front row of the grid course but seki's already there in third place
19:15can he cut the gap or can he get ahead of mark marquez and fabridge jan antonio banaya is also
19:20making a
19:20late dart for the front row of the grid bet seki does go up into second place can banaya better
19:26that
19:26because he takes pole position peko banaya out of absolutely nowhere well we've got a factory
19:31ducati one two now peko banaya then on the front row on pole position banaya's last poll was at the
19:38back end of 2025 the malaysian grand prix in sepan could be his 28th mother gp poll yeah mark marquez
19:47isn't going to beat it he's slowing look out of the final corner so mark marquez and fabio jan antonio
19:51were busy playing games and watching each other on the previous lap they've had their pocket picked
19:56by peko banaya this morning 129.634 we never really got anywhere close we never really threatened did we
20:04the 129.288 that mark delivered in q1 so mark marquez was almost four tenths of a second slower in
20:14q2
20:14than what he was uh in q1 no major damage done though as far as mark's concerned most importantly
20:21as far as uh he's thinking i'm on the front row of the grid that's the most important factor although
20:26is he although it's mark about seki this could spell a bit of bother for the world championship leader
20:30because fabio the jan antonio at the moment fourth quickest which has been his lowest qualifying position
20:36of the season so far it might be a front row it could be even better peko banaya loosening the
20:42tea so
20:42what's up his wrist here john zarko by the way did just set a personal best but he like last
20:47year
20:47will start at 11th but it's all down to two italians is it going to be banaya or is it
20:52going to be fabio
20:53di jan antonio potentially on for a third poll of the year this is going to be mighty mighty close
20:58just four thousandths of a second between banaya and the jan antonio as he comes into this fourth split
21:05out of the final corner goes did you uh over the line no he lost it lost time in that
21:10fourth sector
21:10so he's going to be fourth he's taking the checkered flag yeah i think the uh vr 46 to catty
21:16crew were thinking like we were that there might be a poll there for fabio the jan antonio had to
21:21pick
21:22his way through some real heavy traffic here didn't he on the way on the exit of garage there and
21:26a shake
21:26of the head there from did you didn't appear to slow him down though he was still up at the
21:30third sector
21:31maybe that was just in his mind and clouding his thoughts as he came into the final part of the
21:36lab it was
21:36the final sector where di jan antonio lost it and he ends up starting on the front of row two
21:41it's
21:41banaya mark marquez and marco betzecki who will be your front row banaya his first pole position
21:48since malaysia last year somebody who did miss out big time late on in that session well two april is
21:54missed out jorge martin with a couple minutes left was on the front row of the grid he was as
21:59high second
21:59martin gets punted back down to eighth uh so the 89 last time he raced in the money was victorious
22:07in
22:07both the sprint and the grand prix martin then going away from eighth place on the grid his worst qualifying
22:13of the season so far has not yet started any higher than fifth and a guru at one stage we
22:18thought was
22:19going to be in contention for the front row well he's at the back of the third row now is
22:23a guru in ninth
22:25place it was as close as we forecast and hoped it would be a quarter of a second covered the
22:31top
22:32nine in that session the front three rows of the grid big performances from a costa in fifth and
22:37quateraro sixth on the factory yamaha mir is the leading honda on the grid in seventh place but it
22:43is a factory ducati one two they ended super saturday in heref one and two banaya is under investigation
22:49for that little moment with jan to you last time but as it stands it's a one two for ducati
22:52david
22:53it is indeed that that feels like a massive session for your boys you've been up against it so far
23:00this
23:00year but first and second on the grid importantly for both peko and for marcus today the day the speed
23:07returns for the captain yeah it's been a it's been a while that we had no two riders in the
23:12first row and
23:13uh we are very very happy because it seems uh even with the fourth place of uh diger that the
23:18bike
23:19was good here in le mans but uh yeah it will be tough uh to to fight with uh berzecki
23:24and the perilous but
23:25anyway so far we are very happy especially for peko that uh he suffered a lot in the last couple
23:31of
23:31races and last year and uh mark spark thanks to have a day with you thank you bagnya has suffered
23:38a lot but
23:38he looks like he's getting back to his fellow weekend said in commentary a few times he just looks
23:42like uh the old peko bagnya and as david a tardot said thanks very much for that little interview jack
23:48mark is mark no further action taken after reviewing this incident with peko bagnya and fabio the
23:55gen antonio this was on the exit of garage fair this was immediately after bagnya had found that 129.634
24:02to put him on pole position fabio the gen antonio actually was super quick in this particular sector
24:08i feel like it's more martin that's maybe in his way there because he sat on the curve on the
24:11outside of the corner but as well as we saw at the time he was fastest through the third sector
24:15was
24:16de jan antonio it was in the fourth sector where he lost it and didn't lose it by much
24:19dejan antonio is only 65 000 off pole but he starts on the front of road two great to see
24:26peko bagnya
24:27firing on all cylinders once again his first pole position since the sapang grand prix in malaysia
24:33pole position number 28 in mana gp 36 35th of his grand prix career ralph fernandez will be kicking
24:41himself he's won 29.885 would have actually qualified him ahead of his teammate ayah gur and put him
24:48on the third road of the grid on the track out of brulia unfortunately here just missed out
24:53well there you go the catty crisis what the catty crisis the catty's first second and fourth on the
25:03grid ahead of our french grand prix here marco betsecki the only non-duke on the front row good job
25:10that by
25:10bears at his fourth front row starting five so far this season he wasn't even 300 of a second away
25:17from
25:17pole position as well that was the 72 yeah he's going to be riding in the middle of the action
25:22isn't he this afternoon and tomorrow of course the weather will play a role what kind of role and
25:26how big a role we have to wait and see but i didn't think we'd be seeing a smile as
25:30big as that on the
25:31face of mark marquez when he went to bed last night staring at qualifying one he's coming to saturday
25:37morning he's broken the lap record and he's on the front row of the grid that's mark marquez for you
25:41well in his 129.646 in q2 was snail's pace compared to his q1 performance i mean q1 the lap
25:50he produced
25:51in that opening 15 minute session the 129.288 which smashed the all-time lap record was brilliant and
25:59i think a lot of people that stage would have been thinking well looks like mark's nailed on the pole
26:03position peka bangnai though had other ideas as the the catty lenovo team will be starting the french
26:09grand prix first and second on the grid see that mark and beko just having a little chat with each
26:17other they both produced 129 sixes in fact the top four rides on that grid all delivering 129 sixes
26:28super super tight not even seven hundredths of a second divided bangaya mark betsecki and
26:36to jan antonio pedro costa we know how good that ktm is launching off the line a long long one
26:41as well
26:42up the hill into the first breaking zone for turn two across the fifth boy martin will feel like he
26:49probably had a little bit more to offer in that q2 session at one stage he did get himself late
26:55on as
26:55well up into p2 but hawaii martin finds himself starting from his lowest grip position of the
27:03season so far he will go in between juan me and ayagura your world champion leader though is marco betsecki
27:09on the front row here in le mans let's get his thoughts for jack
27:13well marco it seems as though this weekend things haven't been coming that easy to you in the aprilia guys
27:19so
27:20how much of an effort was that to get it on the front row yeah it's been it's been a
27:25tough weekend
27:25of course because this track is super super tough and the gap between the riders is always very small
27:32so it wasn't easy but today we improved a bit from yesterday i felt better in on the bike from
27:38this
27:39morning immediately and the time attack was super fun and i'm i'm happy and now we have to still make
27:48some some progress because uh the race will be tough but uh anyway happy for for this result and
27:54now we we stay focused for uh for the sprint good luck this afternoon thank you very much
28:00marco betsecki showing as he has done so far in 2026 he is always right there he's always in the
28:07mix
28:07when it really really counts front row start then for the world championship leader 101 points he's
28:13collected so far this season that will see him take an 11 point advantage over his teammate
28:19jorge martin going into this afternoon sprint and can he rectify what's been very problematic
28:25saturday afternoon so far this season for marco betsecki what a saturday morning davide
28:30tardotty summed up perfectly mark is mark all time that record and on the front row of the grid
28:35let's get the thoughts the world champion with jack
28:38well mark i don't want to get carried away but that feels like a pretty big morning for the first
28:42time
28:43all year to me that looked like the real mark marquez out there how important a morning was that and
28:49please tell us it's not pole position but that lap record in q1 was something quite special yeah you
28:56know i'm in a moment that um i'm i don't understand many things i mean i need to to understand
29:02the way i'm
29:03riding because uh it's true that i cannot be consistent but when i have this extra adrenaline
29:09in uh i can do it because i know how to be how to be fast in a bike but
29:13uh but i cannot be constant
29:15so as we see in the q1 uh i did that amazing uh lap that there i couldn't repeat uh
29:20in the in the q2
29:22but it was enough i mean uh it's true that uh yeah step by step let's see if we can
29:27uh understand
29:28and we start to understand already what's going on and uh and yeah we will try to fix uh in
29:33the next
29:33weeks great job well done thank you thanks jack mark marquez then on the front row of the grid after
29:41a stunning saturday morning for the number 93 i'm not quite sure himself how he found that 129.288
29:52it's not very often you get a time in q1 which is four ten three and a half tenths faster
29:57than the
29:57time that eventually claimed pole position which is the scenario we are faced on yet another fantastic
30:04morning here at the french grand prix all credit though to peko bangaya in that crucial q2 session
30:10when the pole position was on the line he delivered the best time in what was this ultra close session
30:17seven six hundredths of a second a little bit more splitting the top four riders on the grid
30:24fairly big gap then you have to say back to pedro acosta well i say fairly big just don't forget
30:29standards yeah by this weekend standard that feels like a a huge chasm doesn't it between digio in
30:34fourth and acosta in fifth place we know how aggressive a cost is going to be though early on
30:39but here he is though no wonder he's got a big big smile on his face for the first time
30:44in 2026 peko bangaya on pole position he's with jack well peko 2026 has been a challenge for you a
30:52challenge for ducati so far but your pace this morning was excellent you're on pole position
30:57does this weekend feel like the weekend where things are starting to click i hope i hope it's
31:03never easy to to say it after also what was happening last year so keep calm feet on the ground
31:09and working
31:09like we are doing in the test is clear that we found something that uh is helping me so we
31:14just need
31:14to continue like this and try to uh maintain the same level this afternoon great job well done
31:20yeah that's a great point congratulations uh to our pole starter here in the michelin grand prix of
31:28france factory decatistar peko bangaya but as jack just made a great point because bangaya was flying this
31:34morning on used tires in fp2 has it clicked finally in 2026 for the double monday gp world champion where
31:43we will find out won't we in the 13 lap sprint this afternoon we'll find out over the full race
31:50distance
31:50of 27 laps tomorrow peko bangaya still gonna be hoping for a dry race tomorrow because he's certainly
31:55one of the big contenders one of the big favorites what a sprint saturday we have already had so far
32:01here
32:01in france peko bangaya on pole mark marquez with a new autumn lap record a great day so far for
32:09the
32:09factory ducati team first poll of 2026 for peko bangaya it's a factory ducati 1-2 as they look to
32:16end
32:16their barren run in 2026 mark marquez second despite smashing the lap record in q1 a time that would
32:24have easily put him on pole marco betsecki third fabi gian antonio are rather frustrated for pedro
32:29costa and famio quattro are already standing up to take fifth and sixth ahead of mia martin
32:33and i augura who we thought was potentially going to go onto the front row at one point alex marquez
32:38pays the price for his crash he's down in 10th joan zarko is 11th where he started from last year
32:43when he won this grand prix rings next up from fernandez bastianini marini morbidelli
32:47top rack in 17th ahead of marrera miller aldeguer down in p20 miserable morning for the christine team
32:54brad binder and jonas volga completing the grid what does that all mean for the bmw m award well
32:59marco betsecki takes the lead of it by two points from fabio di gian antonio mark marquez just a
33:05third point further back pedro costa fourth and peco bagnaya launches himself up the order now into
33:10fifth with his first 25 point haul in the bmw m award this season well hopefully that's qualifying
33:18session has been a taste of what is to come for the remainder of our french grand prix here in
33:25lemont
33:25the home fans have been treated to some spectacle already fabio cuotoraro six on the grid 2025 french
33:34grand prix winner john zarko 11th on the grid which peco bagnaya for the first time this season that
33:39finds himself on pole position the last time he was on pole over in sebang in malaysia he won the
33:45sprint on that occasion can history repeat itself here today in france
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