MotoGP Champion Fabio Quartararo enjoyed the home support as he prepared for the French GP from sixth in Friday’s standings.

The Monster Energy Yamaha rider failed to set a successful time attack in the afternoon session after traffic and yellow flags restricted his rhythm. However, his 1’31.640 effort, half a second adrift of Enea Bastianini’s new lap record, sat him sixth in the combined times at the close of day one with the Frenchman pleased with his consistent pace across the two 45-minute sessions.

“It was a good day because the pace was really good in both FP1 and FP2,” Quartararo confirmed. “We have good potential with the medium and the soft tyre.

“Unfortunately I found quite a lot of traffic on track today, yellow flags, even during the time attack and couldn’t make a good lap. I think I'm not the only one. I saw also Pecco was the same but the most important is that our pace is really fast. I couldn't improve, but I feel like it was good for collecting some data for tomorrow.

“At the moment it's not clear yet who can be at the top, because everyone is so tight together here in Le Mans. It's going to be really interesting. I feel like we are going to have a really good weekend.

“It felt great riding in front of so many French fans. I feel happy, and they are enjoying themselves. This is the most important.”