2018 Le Mans MotoGP FP1 Result: Marquez, Dovizioso and Viñales Nearly Inseparable

Submitted by Zara Daniela on Fri, 2018-05-18 09:06

A clear but cool morning awaited the premier class for their first venture on French grounds and it was going to be a first indication of the pecking order, especially for Yamaha. The only real conclusion was that the situation is as close as ever, the lead exchanging hands between four factories about every five minutes. Cal Crutchlow was the early leader, with Valentino Rossi and Andrea Iannone also putting their names at the top but it wasn’t to be for any of the three in the end.

While the main contenders were hanging back in the garage preparing for their final runs, Maverick Viñales stayed out and put in an impressive long run on used tyres. The Spaniard found the speed he seemed to be missing and shot into the lead of the session in the final ten minutes by a whooping half a second. He did go on to improve his time but the gap wasn’t to survive the session, Marc Marquez waiting until the final crossing of the line to go top on used tyres and with new aero appendices.

Andrea Dovizioso snuck a Ducati in between Marquez and Viñales, the three riders covered by only six hundredths of a second. Two seconds down the road was Crutchlow in fourth, with Johann Zarco going up and down the timesheets to finish fifth. Rossi dropped back to sixth, three tenths down on his teammate and ahead of compatriot Iannone as the first Suzuki. After announcing his contract extension, teammate Alex Rins had a tougher morning down in 17th.

The top ten was filled in by another Ducati and two KTMs, Jorge Lorenzo closely followed by Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro. While coping with the consequences of two separate injuries this time around, Dani Pedrosa finished 15th and was the last rider within a second of the leader.

Results:

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap 1st	Prev.
1	93	Marc MARQUEZ	Honda	1'32.476
2	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	Ducati	1'32.501	0.025	0.025
3	25	Maverick VIÑALES	Yamaha	1'32.543	0.067	0.042
4	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	Honda	1'32.734	0.258	0.191
5	5	Johann ZARCO	Yamaha	1'32.755	0.279	0.021
6	46	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	1'32.777	0.301	0.022
7	29	Andrea IANNONE	Suzuki	1'32.919	0.443	0.142
8	99	Jorge LORENZO	Ducati	1'33.084	0.608	0.165
9	38	Bradley SMITH	KTM	1'33.157	0.681	0.073
10	44	Pol ESPARGARO	KTM	1'33.245	0.769	0.088
11	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati	1'33.254	0.778	0.009
12	43	Jack MILLER	Ducati	1'33.268	0.792	0.014
13	53	Tito RABAT	Ducati	1'33.326	0.850	0.058
14	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	Aprilia	1'33.380	0.904	0.054
15	26	Dani PEDROSA	Honda	1'33.389	0.913	0.009
16	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	Ducati	1'33.492	1.016	0.103
17	42	Alex RINS	Suzuki	1'33.692	1.216	0.200
18	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	Honda	1'33.833	1.357	0.141
19	45	Scott REDDING	Aprilia	1'33.851	1.375	0.018
20	17	Karel ABRAHAM	Ducati	1'34.333	1.857	0.482
21	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	Honda	1'34.509	2.033	0.176
22	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	Yamaha	1'34.600	2.124	0.091
23	10	Xavier SIMEON	Ducati	1'35.224	2.748	0.624
24	12	Thomas LUTHI	Honda	1'35.232	2.756	0.008