Jaume Masia clicked off the quickest lap time during Friday's two Moto3 Practice sessions at Le Mans, the Spaniard leaving it late to nudge ahead of Ayumu Sasaki.

Coming to France riding high in fourth overall despite not yet tasting the winners' champagne, Masia kicked off his weekend as he means to go on by surging to the top with his final effort on the Leopard Honda.

His time attack was enough to bump down Husqvarna IntactGP's Sasaki to second, both he and Masia the only riders to break into the 1m 41s bracket.

Xavier Artigas made it three different marques inside the top three aboard the CFMoto PruestelGP bike, while Romano Fenati enjoyed a positive start to his weekend with an eye-catching run to fourth quickest.

Championship leader Daniel Holgado led an unusual muted KTM challenge in fifth place, ahead of top rookie Jose Antonio Rueda on the sister full factory Red Bull KTM Ajo machine.

Winner of the last two Moto3 races, Ivan Ortola endured an eventful start to the weekend with a crash in both P1 and P2, though the Angeluss MTA rider would recover to end the day seventh best.

Diogo Moreira was another to hit the deck in P2 en route to eighth by the conclusion, while Joel Kelso - now almost fully fit following a spell out through injury - and Deniz Oncu completed the top ten.

With P3 remaining to decide which 14 riders head through to Q2 automatically, the remaining provisional spots are held by Filippo Fairoli, Syarifuddin Azman, Ryusei Yamanaka and Mario Suryo Aji.

Britain's Scott Ogden sits on the cusp of the top fourteen in 15th aboard the VisionTrack Racing Honda, while his team-mate Joshua Whatley ended his Friday in 22nd.

French Moto3 | Practice 2 Results

P1 + P2 Times Combined | Le Mans | Conditions - Dry, Sunny, Warm