Luca Marini leads friday free practice 1 in Le Mans

The action is in Le Mans, and the first morning practice was underway. While most riders went on track, Franco Morbidelli had a 5-minute suspension from the last race weekend, where he was still on track with a broken bike. It was sunny weather, creating perfect conditions on track.

The first times were in a range from 1:33 to 1:36. It was Fabio Di Giannantonio who took the lead, with Francesco Bagnaia behind him. The home heroes here were Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo.

However, it didn’t take long for the positions at the top to change quickly. The riders were improving their times, now being in the range from 1:31 to 1:33. Pedro Acosta was leading, with Marini in second and Di Giannantonio in third.

After 10 minutes, the top 10 looked as follows: Di Giannantonio, Mir, Zarco, Bagnaia, Acosta, Morbidelli, Marini, A. Márquez, Quartararo, Bezzecchi.

While Bagnaia was doing great so far, holding his place inside the top 5, his teammate Marc Márquez was outside the top 10, so far unable to improve his time. Most of the riders returned to the pits, allowing the few who stayed on track to attack for faster times. This was the case for Marc Márquez, who used the empty track to improve his time, jumping to 4th place.

With 23 minutes left, the majority of the riders had returned to the track, but so far were unable to drastically improve their times. Zarco was in 7th place, while Quartararo was in 11th, being the fastest Yamaha rider.

With 20 minutes left, the top 10 looked as follows: Di Giannantonio, Marini, Mir, Bagnaia, Acosta, M. Márquez, Zarco, Moreira, A. Márquez, Aldeguer.

Raúl Fernández, who has had a good season so far, managed to find his rhythm and improved to 7th place, pushing Marc Márquez down.

Enea Bastianini managed to finally break into the top 10, moving to 2nd place, while Di Giannantonio still led the practice.

However, Marini jumped to the front with a time of 1:31.120. As the session neared its end, the riders were now pushing for their final attempts.

And the times got even faster. Marini was the first one to get into the 1:30 range, while Zarco and Fernández improved into the top 3. Even Alex Rins, who was outside the top 10, moved into 5th place. Acosta, who was pushed down by other riders, jumped back up to 2nd place.

With the chequered flag out, the riders were finishing their attempts. While both Marini and Acosta were safe at the front, the positions didn’t change drastically. Only a few riders managed to improve at the end, like Marc Márquez, who jumped to 9th place.