Quartararo Enters Q2 with Second Place on Le Mans Friday, Rins Unlucky to Find Himself in Q1

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins were pushing hard on the Grand Prix de France Friday. Home hero Quartararo secured a Q2 entry, taking 2nd place in the afternoon Practice classification. Rins put in a full day of work, but luck was not on his side. He ended the Friday in 17th place in the Practice results. He will take part in Q1 tomorrow.

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP's Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins went straight to work on the Michelin Grand Prix de France Friday. Quartararo was especially keen to secure a place in the top 10 in front of his passionate home fans. He pushed to the limit to secure second place and a spot on the Q2 entry list for tomorrow. Rins faced challenges in today's FP1 and Practice sessions. Ultimately, he ranked 17th in the Practice results, which means he will take part in Q1.

Quartararo was fully motivated to start his home GP. He was looking the part on the Friday, debuting his special French GP helmet in FP1. He completed the morning session in sixth place but went on to lead the 1-hour afternoon Practice right from the get-go. Happy with his opening laps that saw him feature in the top spot, he focused on his bike's set-up. He held third place when the first round of time attacks started in the final 15 minutes. The Frenchman soon found himself in 10th place, as the hot laps rolled in, and in response he upped his efforts a notch. A 1'30.222s, set on lap 20, had him briefly take over the top spot before he was demoted to second place. There was time for a second time-attack run. Despite yellow flags and having slipped down to fourth, El Diablo managed to clock a 1'30.032s on lap 25/26, to grab second position, 0.177s off today's fastest time.

Rins started the French GP with the objective to verify his findings from the Jerez Test. He worked diligently during FP1, but a crash did cost him valuable time. Thankfully unharmed, he ended the morning outing in 17th place and keen to improve in the afternoon. He was making progress during the Practice, but his time attack was cut short due to a technical issue right before the end of the session. His best afternoon time was a 1'31.254s, set on lap 18/20. It was 0.9s faster than his morning time and ultimately kept him in 17th in the Practice rankings, 1.399s from first.

Tomorrow, the teammates will be back in action for FP2, held from 10:10-10:40 (GMT+2). The qualifying sessions will follow from 10:50-11:30, and the 13-lap Sprint will start at 15:00.