Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso has topped the opening MotoGP free practice session at Le Mans, lapping a quarter of a second quicker than reigning champion Marc Marquez while the returning Dani Pedrosa ended in 13th place after putting in 17 laps of the Bugatti circuit.
Dovizioso’s best of 1’34.034 is some two seconds off Marquez’ pole record but the track temperature was only 15°C so expect that gap to come down significantly in this afternoon’s second session.
Marquez started the session late, making his first exit with a new swingarm with only 26 minutes left but was soon on the pace, jumping into second place on his seventh lap with a 1’34.825. He passed Dovizoso for top spot with three minutes left but the Italian hit back with his best on his final flying lap.
Jerez dominator Jorge Lorenzo finished in third place and only 0.021s behind his Spanish compatriot while Britain’s Cal Crutchlow was just 0.009s further back in fourth but marking everyone’s card early on.
Monster Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro, who led the session until Dovizoso got into his stride, ended in fifth place, one ahead of Scott Redding’s works-spec Honda, who lapped in 1’34.472 to be less than half a second off the pace.
MotoGP championship leader Valentino Rossi was seventh on a 1’34.570 and he had Pramac Ducati’s Yonny Hernandez for company with the injured Andrea Iannone and Bradley Smith completing a top ten that was covered by just seven-tenths of a second.
Aleix Espargaro started the session brightly but slipped down to 11th despite having a new specification motor for this weekend. His team-mate Maverick Vinales ended in 12th with Pedrosa 13th and 1.314 slower than Dovizioso.
Nicky Hayden was the best of the Open Hondas, one behind Stefan Bradl with Jack Miller 22nd, Loris Baz 23rd and Eugene Laverty down in 24th place.
