Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez stormed to the top of the MotoGP free practice timesheets at Le Mans this morning, going under Dani Pedrosa's 2011 lap record and outpacing Jorge Lorenzo but half a second.
Lorenzo led for a majority of the session on a 1'34.099 while Pedrosa was in second with a 1'34.182, more than a tenth slower than his time from yesterday but Marquez flew in with a 1'33.693 and then a 1'33.600 with his 21st lap.
Ducati's Nicky Hayden leapt into fourth place for the session on a 1'34.426 but stays in sixth overall while Cal Crutchlow, riding the Monster Yamaha, put in a 1'34.467 to improve his time for the weekend but he stays in seventh overall.
Andrea Dovizioso was just under nine-tenths off the pace this morning for sixth place and Bradley Smith put in two fantastic laps to drag himself into this afternoon's qualifying two session and seventh in free practice three.
Alvaro Bautista, who suffered a big highside, Valentino Rossi and Stefan Bradl completed the session's top ten and they all go through by right. Rossi was 1.2s off the pace this morning with a much lower track temperature than yesterday.
Aspar CRT team-mate Aleix Espargaro and Randy De Puniet just failed to make it through but are in the qualifying one top slots. Michael Laverty was down in 24th spot.
Entrants to qualifying one:
Marc Marquez
Dani Pedrosa
Jorge Lorenzo
Valentino Rossi
Stefan Bradl
Nicky Hayden
Cal Crutchlow
Andrea Dovizioso
Bradley Smith
Alvaro Bautista
