Johann Zarco tops afternoon practice in Le Mans

The afternoon practice kicked off in style. This 60 minute session is special, as the fastest top 10 riders will earn direct promotion to Q2. In this session, the riders use the first 45 minutes to figure out the perfect configuration and warm-up.

The first times were in a range from 1:31 to 1:33. Marco Bezzecchi took the lead of the session, with Pedro Acosta in second and Di Giannantonio in third.

Just 5 minutes into the session, there was the first yellow flag of the day. It was caused by Jorge Martin crashing. Luckily, he got back on his bike and returned to the pits.

Besides one rider, everyone chose to have a medium rear tyre with a soft front tyre. The times started to get faster as Pedro Acosta was the first one to enter the 1:30 range. Soon after, other riders started to join him, like Francesco Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio.

As the session progressed, Acosta managed to improve his time even more. After 10 minutes, the top 10 looked as follows: Acosta, Bagnaia, Bezzecchi, Di Giannantonio, Marini, M. Márquez, Moreira, Zarco, A. Márquez, Bastianini. The riders took a quick stop in the pits to talk with their mechanics about the configuration. The home hero Fabio Quartararo stayed out longer, trying to use the empty track, which helped him improve to 11th place. Meanwhile, Jorge Martin, who had crashed earlier in the session, was slowly moving up, sitting in 15th place.

With 38 minutes left, there was another yellow flag. This time it was caused by Fermín Aldeguer crashing in Sector 1.

As the riders returned to the track, they were improving their times. This allowed some to jump to the lead, like Di Giannantonio, who was now in first place. Raúl Fernández had started a great lap, and he managed to break into the top 10.

With the session being halfway done, the top 10 looked as follows: Di Giannantonio, Acosta, Bagnaia, Mir, Bezzecchi, Marini, Zarco, M. Márquez, Fernández.

To add more drama, the bike of Raúl Fernández caught fire. Luckily, the marshals quickly assisted in putting the fire out.

The grid was close to each other, as the top 17 riders were within 1 second of each other. Johann Zarco put in an incredible lap in front of his home crowd, and he moved into the lead of the session.

With 15 minutes left, the top 10 looked as follows: Zarco, Di Giannantonio, Acosta, Moreira, Bagnaia, Mir, Bezzecchi, Martin, Marini, Rins.

With 15 minutes left, the riders would now attack for a direct entry to Q2. With 11 minutes left, Acosta started an incredible lap, but he crashed at Turn 13. Meanwhile, Bezzecchi improved his position to fifth, while Quartararo managed to break into the top 10. Raúl Fernández, on his second bike, improved to third place. Joan Mir used the cancelled laps of other riders to take the lead of the session from Zarco.

The Ducati duo of Bagnaia and Marc Márquez were inside the top 10 in third and fifth place.

But Bagnaia had a great lap started, and it looked as if he could attack first place. And he managed to do so, coming very close to breaking into the 1:29 range.

As the session neared its end, it was full of surprises, like Rins, who was in third place. Ai Ogura put in an incredible lap and managed to break into the top 10.

Álex Márquez, who put in an incredible lap, ended with the same time as Bagnaia in the lead. However, shortly after, Di Giannantonio took the lead and became the first one to break into the 1:29 range. Soon after, Zarco joined him and took the lead from him.

With the chequered flag out, there was another yellow flag. This one was caused by Bagnaia, and it meant that most of the riders would get their laps cancelled.

The riders going to Q2 were: Zarco, Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia, A. Márquez, Mir, Martin, Bezzecchi, Rins, Ogura, Acosta.