The championship leader once again made the superiority of his Desmosedici speak for itself by beating in extremis by 58 thousandths the Spanish returnee Marc Marquez (Honda) on his last lap, while the Italian Luca Marini (Ducati-VR46), who had to go through the repechages (Q1), created the surprise by achieving the third time.
Bagnaia will therefore start in first position on Saturday afternoon during the sprint and Sunday during the Grand Prix and could thus fly to the world championship at the end of the weekend at Le Mans.
Australian Jack Miller (KTM) took fourth place and will start on the second row ahead of Spaniards Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac) and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia). The latter, in the lead at the end of the first run, had a mechanical problem coming out of the pits and could not start again to try to improve his time.
Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati-VR46) finished seventh, ahead of Spaniard Alex Marquez (Ducati-Gresini) and Zarco (Ducati-Pramac).
The Tricolore, never in the shot on Saturday, finally achieved the ninth time almost six tenths of Bagnaia, to the chagrin of dozens of thousands of French fans present at the Bugatti circuit.
Johann Zarco at Le Mans on May 12, 2023 © JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP
The fourth row will be occupied by South African Brad Binder (KTM) and Spaniards Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), who scared himself by falling to more than 200 km/h, and Augusto Fernandez (GasGas Tech 3).
The weekend promises to be very complicated for Quartararo. Already disappointing on Friday in qualifying practice with only the 12th time on his Yamaha, the Niçois failed to finish third in the repechages and missed qualifying in Q2 by only 23 thousandths of a second in front of his stunned fans.
The 2021 world champion will start only from 13th place on the grid and will have to make a very good start to hope to pick up some points in the sprint on Saturday and the Grand Prix on Sunday.
© 2023 AFP