MotoGP LIVE Le Mans France FP1: Audacious bet won for Jack Miller ahead of Johann Zarco!

Article updated continuously until the end of the session. Like last year when she played tricks on the MotoGP riders right up to the starting grid, the weather will undoubtedly be the determining factor in this 2021 edition of the French Grand Prix.

At least this is what allows us to anticipate unfavorable forecasts and the crash festival that we just witnessed in Moto1 FP3.

In these conditions, the double of the official Ducati in the heat of Jerez following the physical problem of Fabio Quartararo already seems very distant, even if Jack Miller can of course be formidable in the wet...

La national weather we are announcing with certainty rain for Friday and Saturday, with a small hope of a dry track for Sunday, and the gaps being particularly tight this year, the cards are therefore completely redistributed for this 5th round of a MotoGP World Championship currently being conducted by 2 points per Francesco Bagnaia before fabio quartararo.
Johann zarco occupies 5th position, 2 points behind Maverick Vinales and 1 behind Joan mir : suffice to say that there is hardly any room for error for these 5 drivers who will have to try to reconcile performance and… stay on their wheels!

In case of rain, the Michelin Power Rain are available in Soft and Medium for the front and rear, the two rears being asymmetrical with again a harder right side.

Last year, the Bugatti circuit experienced 100 falls, by far the (bad) record of the season ahead of Barcelona (64), Misano (61) and Valencia (61). Here are a few…

This morning, the sky is leaden and the temperatures are 10° in the air and 8° on a wet track... but only occasionally a few very small drops fall when the 22 drivers (Esteve Rabat always replaces George Martin injured) are preparing under the lenses of Dorna's cameras. So let's take advantage of these few minutes of live broadcast thanks to the official website MotoGP.com:

Here are last year's references:

MotoGP™ Le Mans	2020	2020
FP1	1'43.804 Bradley Smith (See here)	1'38.007 Jack Miller (See here)
FP2	1'34.133 Jack Miller (See here)
FP3	1'32.319 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
FP4	1'32.528 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
Q1	1'31.952 Danilo Petrucci (See here)
Q2	1'31.315 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
Warm Up	1'32.869 Franco Morbidelli (See here)
Course	Petrucci, Alex Marquez, Pol Espargaro (See here)
All time lap record	1'31.185 Johann Zarco (2018)

When the red lights go out... the tradition is undermined and it is Brad Binder who sets off first on the track.

Everyone is on rain tires but only those of the South African driver are indicated on the table: soft/soft.

At the end of the first round, Jack Miller imposes his Ducati in 1'47.320.

Contrary to usual, the drivers drove rather grouped on the track and, on the next pass, the Australian improved to 1'45.873 in front Marc Marquez, Danilo Petrucci, Pol Espargaro, Iker Lecuona and Johann Zarco.

Another lap and it's still number #43 who keeps his name at the top of the rankings, this time in 1'44.369.

The dominance of Jack Miller is confirmed in 1'43.455 on the next pass, this time a second ahead Miguel Oliveira, Johann Zarco, Marc Marquez, Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir.

In 1'43.312 during his fifth flying lap, the Ducati rider intends to build on his victory in Andalusia while Joan Mir is the victim of a technical incident.

At the end of the first run, Jack Miller precede Johann Zarco, Maverick Vinales, Miguel Oliveira, Francesco Bagnaia, Aleix Espargaro, Lorenzo Savadori, Iker Lecuona, Pol Espargaro, Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi, Joan Mir, Alex Rins, Danilo Petrucci, Takaaki Nakagami, Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder , Tito Rabat, Lucas Marini, Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini.

This is the moment when Valentino Rossi climbs back to sixth position but the gaps are very significant, the Petronas driver already 1,7 seconds behind the leader.

This is also the time when Dorna announces that the Finnish Grand Prix is ​​canceled and will be replaced by a second Grand Prix in Austria on August 8.

Midway through the session, Marc Márquez, then thirteenth at 2,4 seconds, made his effort and moved up to second position, only 47/1000 behind Miguel Oliveira who has just taken command in 1'42.824.

Little by little, the track begins to dry on the lines and it seems possible that some will try to switch to slicks by the end of the session which will take place in 20 minutes...

Marc Márquez continued his effort and very temporarily seized command before being overtaken by Joan mir in 1'41.854.

A few seconds later, Johann zarco registered his name at the top of the ranking, in 1'41.631.

The table shows that everyone is on soft tires, both at the front and at the rear, quite simply because the tire allocation offers more to the drivers than mediums.

The times continue to go down, firstly impulse of Jack Miller who regained the leadership in 1'41.392 before Johann zarco does not recover in 1'40.796: the tone is set and, with the weather forecast for the weekend, a place in the top 10 during an "almost" dry session will be very appreciable at the end of the session...

Maverick Vinales, particularly present during this first session, achieves the second provisional time before conceding it to Francis Bagnaia. But it's good Johann zarco who confirms being particularly comfortable in these drying conditions, setting a time of 1'40.398 12 minutes from the checkered flag.

This is the moment when Jack Miller decides to start again with soft slick tires!

For the moment, in 1'41.392, the Australian has already fallen back to fifth place, one second behind John Zarco...

Alex Marquez also tries the bet of slick tires while Jack Miller has already returned 9/1000 of the best time of Johann zarco…the bet already seems to be winning!

On the following lap, the fates were contrasted for the two drivers equipped with slick tires on the track, since Alex Márquez falls at the entrance to the Dunlop chicane while Jack Miller sets the best time of the weekend in 1'38.007, a lead of more than two seconds over Johann Zarco!

And luck favoring the bold, a few drops of rain begin to fall after the Australian's performance while Maverick Vinales makes a mistake very slowly at turn #4…

In the end, the top 10 is made up of Jack Miller, Johann Zarco, Joan Mir, Pol Espargaro, Marc Marquez, Lorenzo Savadori, Francesco Bagnaia, Miguel Oliveira, Alex Rins and Aleix Espargaro: no Yamaha appears in the top 10, unlike the two Aprilias!

See you at 14:10 p.m. for FP2!

FP1 ranking of the French MotoGP Grand Prix at Le Mans:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com