Submitted by Zara Daniela on
As morning in Le Mans was starting to warm up, the boost in confidence saw quite a few intermediate class riders test the gravel traps around the circuit, with no serious consequences. One man who managed to avoid all that was Marcel Schrotter, who grabbed the lead from Alex Marquez at the halfway point of the session and ran away at the front – at one point over four tenths faster than the rest.
Marquez recovered some ground and looked like causing Schrotter some trouble but the Spaniard only managed to get within nine hundredths of a second of the lead. Jorge Navarro seems to have found the recipe to consistently crack the top ten and this time it was as high as third, only a tenth down on the fastest man of the morning.
Sam Lowes had a characteristic off-track excursion in turn 4 but bounced back to climb into fourth. Joan Mir started off on the right foot on one of his favourite tracks and after being the first leader of the session, he settled for fifth position, half a second slower than Dynavolt's leading rider. Lorenzo Baldassarri was only two hundredths of a second behind, followed by Hector Barbera, who snatched seventh place in between two crashes.
Pecco Bagnaia had his own hefty off track episode but he managed to carry on after an excellent and speedy job from his team. The Sky rider climbed back into the top eight, ahead of Miguel Oliveira and with Andrea Locatelli completing the top ten. Mattia Pasini only just missed out and was over a second slower than the leader, as were Xavi Vierge and Romano Fenati.
Results:
Pos. | Num. | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap 1st | Prev. |
1 | 23 | Marcel SCHROTTER | Kalex | 1'37.001 | ||
2 | 73 | Alex MARQUEZ | Kalex | 1'37.094 | 0.093 | 0.093 |
3 | 9 | Jorge NAVARRO | Kalex | 1'37.223 | 0.222 | 0.129 |
4 | 22 | Sam LOWES | KTM | 1'37.367 | 0.366 | 0.144 |
5 | 36 | Joan MIR | Kalex | 1'37.547 | 0.546 | 0.180 |
6 | 7 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | Kalex | 1'37.567 | 0.566 | 0.020 |
7 | 40 | Hector BARBERA | Kalex | 1'37.670 | 0.669 | 0.103 |
8 | 42 | Francesco BAGNAIA | Kalex | 1'37.673 | 0.672 | 0.003 |
9 | 44 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | KTM | 1'37.956 | 0.955 | 0.283 |
10 | 5 | Andrea LOCATELLI | Kalex | 1'37.979 | 0.978 | 0.023 |
11 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | Kalex | 1'38.013 | 1.012 | 0.034 |
12 | 97 | Xavi VIERGE | Kalex | 1'38.035 | 1.034 | 0.022 |
13 | 13 | Romano FENATI | Kalex | 1'38.088 | 1.087 | 0.053 |
14 | 32 | Isaac VIÑALES | Kalex | 1'38.094 | 1.093 | 0.006 |
15 | 20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Speed Up | 1'38.248 | 1.247 | 0.154 |
16 | 27 | Iker LECUONA | KTM | 1'38.272 | 1.271 | 0.024 |
17 | 24 | Simone CORSI | Kalex | 1'38.275 | 1.274 | 0.003 |
18 | 52 | Danny KENT | Speed Up | 1'38.295 | 1.294 | 0.020 |
19 | 89 | Khairul Idham PAWI | Kalex | 1'38.482 | 1.481 | 0.187 |
20 | 45 | Tetsuta NAGASHIMA | Kalex | 1'38.523 | 1.522 | 0.041 |
21 | 62 | Stefano MANZI | Suter | 1'38.611 | 1.610 | 0.088 |
22 | 41 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 1'38.801 | 1.800 | 0.190 |
23 | 10 | Luca MARINI | Kalex | 1'38.845 | 1.844 | 0.044 |
24 | 4 | Steven ODENDAAL | NTS | 1'38.931 | 1.930 | 0.086 |
25 | 16 | Joe ROBERTS | NTS | 1'38.984 | 1.983 | 0.053 |
26 | 64 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | Tech 3 | 1'39.093 | 2.092 | 0.109 |
27 | 3 | Lukas TULOVIC | KTM | 1'39.553 | 2.552 | 0.460 |
28 | 14 | Hector GARZO | Tech 3 | 1'39.563 | 2.562 | 0.010 |
29 | 19 | Corentin PEROLARI | Transformiers | 1'39.699 | 2.698 | 0.136 |
30 | 66 | Niki TUULI | Kalex | 1'39.770 | 2.769 | 0.071 |
31 | 51 | Eric GRANADO | Suter | 1'39.841 | 2.840 | 0.071 |
32 | 95 | Jules DANILO | Kalex | 1'40.052 | 3.051 | 0.211 |
33 | 21 | Federico FULIGNI | Kalex | 1'40.775 | 3.774 | 0.723 |
34 | 80 | Cedric TANGRE | Tech 3 | 1'41.722 | 4.721 | 0.947 |
35 | 18 | Xavi CARDELUS | Kalex | 1'41.853 | 4.852 | 0.131 |