French Grand Prix, Le Mans, Moto3, FP1: Rodrigo takes control

This fifth round of the MotoGP season takes place on the legendary Bugatti circuit of Le Mans which this year celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first Grand Prix organized on this track in 1969. It is Arón Canet on his KTM who occupies the lead in the championship with just one point ahead of Honda driver Niccolò Antonelli, the Jerez winner. The unknown of the weekend will be the weather, with rain which could be part of the program of Sarthoises' celebrations.

Le Mans Moto3™	2018	2019
FP1	1'43.114 Jorge Martin	1'42.954 Gabriel Rodrigo
FP2	1'42.596 Niccolò Antonelli
FP3	1'42.111 Marcos Ramirez
Q1	XXX
Q2	1'42.039 Jorge Martin
warm up	1'42.530 Enea Bastianini
Course	Arenas, Migno, Ramirez
All time lap record	1'41.754 Martin (2018)

It's 12,7 degrees in the air and 14,2 degrees on the track. The sky is somewhat cloudy but lets the sun shine through.

It was Perez on the KTM who set the reference time in 1.47.963s. He is taken over by Fenati who passes the 1.47 mark. He achieved a lap time of 1.46.359s. The times improve as the laps go by and after 10 minutes of session, we pass the 1.44 mark with Dalla Porta setting a time of 1.44.101s. Suzuki, Arbolino, Canet make up the top 5 of this session. Dalla Porta fell in turn 3, the latter had improved his own time and was running in 1.43.607s.

There are 13 minutes left and Dalla Porta is holding on with his time of 1.43.607s, Masiá is second and is running in 1.43.821s. Arbolino is third in 1.43.907s. Yurchenko falls in turn 3. Antonelli imitates him in the same corner. 7 minutes from the end of the session, Rodrigo worked to improve Dalla Porta's time by 4 tenths, he achieved a time of 1.43.127s. Rodrigo pushes the line and improves his time, he passes the 1.43 mark with a time of 1.42.954s ahead of Arbolino and Dalla Porta. McPhee crashed in turn 3, he had achieved the tenth best time.

French Grand Prix, Le Mans, Moto3, FP1: times

1	19	Gabriel RODRIGO	Honda	1'42.954
2	14	Tony ARBOLINO	Honda	1'43.042	0.088	0.088
3	48	Lorenzo FROM THE DOOR	Honda	1'43.099	0.145	0.057
4	22	Kazuki MASAKI	KTM	1'43.120	0.166	0.021
5	24	Tatsuki SUZUKI	Honda	1'43.221	0.267	0.101
6	42	Marcos RAMIREZ	Honda	1'43.230	0.276	0.009
7	77	Vicente PEREZ	KTM	1'43.307	0.353	0.077
8	7	Dennis FOGGIA	KTM	1'43.362	0.408	0.055
9	79	To OGURA	Honda	1'43.409	0.455	0.047
10	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	KTM	1'43.412	0.458	0.003
11	21	Alonso LOPEZ	Honda	1'43.517	0.563	0.105
12	84	Jakub KORNFEIL	KTM	1'43.641	0.687	0.124
13	17	John MCPHEE	Honda	1'43.643	0.689	0.002
14	11	Sergio GARCIA	Honda	1'43.663	0.709	0.020
15	16	Andrea MIGNO	KTM	1'43.700	0.746	0.037
16	5	Jaume MASIA	KTM	1'43.765	0.811	0.065
17	75	Albert Arenas	KTM	1'43.813	0.859	0.048
18	44	Aaron CANET	KTM	1'43.870	0.916	0.057
19	55	Roman FENATI	Honda	1'43.938	0.984	0.068
20	27	Kaito TOBA	Honda	1'43.992	1.038	0.054
21	12	Philip SALAC	KTM	1'44.025	1.071	0.033
22	23	Niccolo ANTONELLI	Honda	1'44.039	1.085	0.014
23	40	Darryn BINDER	KTM	1'44.101	1.147	0.062
24	54	Riccardo ROSSI	Honda	1'44.263	1.309	0.162
25	71	Ayumu SASAKI	Honda	1'44.589	1.635	0.326
26	13	Celestino VIETTI	KTM	1'44.718	1.764	0.129
27	61	Can ONCU	KTM	1'44.973	2.019	0.255
28	76	Makar YURCHENKO	KTM	1'45.081	2.127	0.108
29	69	Tom BOOTH-AMOS	KTM	1'46.577	3.623	1.496