MotoGP LIVE Le Mans France FP4: Fabio Quartararo before the rain!

Article updated continuously until the end of the session. In view of this 2021 edition of the French Grand Prix which takes place at Le Mans, Johann zarco, fabio quartararo, Maverick Vinales, Espargaro Pol, Franco Morbidelli, Miguel Oliveira, Jack Miller, Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi and Takaaki Nakagami were able to take advantage of a single dry session yesterday afternoon to appear in the provisional top 10.

This is not the case in particular for the two Suzuki drivers who will therefore be keen to take advantage of this 4-minute FP30 to ensure a good pace in the current track conditions, since these are the ones which will also prevail during of qualification 1 at the end of this session.

These conditions are currently characterized by very uncertain skies, as the Moto3 riders have just noticed in qualifying, and the track still has some areas of humidity in its southern part, with temperatures of 15° in the air and 21° on asphalt.

As the 22 pilots prepare under the lenses of Dorna's cameras, let's enjoy these few minutes of live footage thanks to the official website MotoGP.com:

Here are the past 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)	1'31.747 Johann Zarco (See here)
FP3	1'32.319 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'40.736 Marc Marquez (See here)
FP4	1'32.528 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'32.857 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
Q1	1'31.952 Danilo Petrucci (See here)	(See here)
Q2	1'31.315 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	(See here)
Warm Up	1'32.869 Franco Morbidelli (See here)	(See here)
Course	Petrucci, Alex Marquez, Pol Espargaro (See here)	(See here)
All time lap record	1'31.185 Johann Zarco (2018)

When the red lights go out... alex rins is the quickest to take to the track. Curiously, the Suzuki driver is on medium/medium rain tires, while otherwise the soft slicks seem to be unanimous.

Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini prefer to observe the first minutes from their box…

Finally, alex rins was perhaps right because a few drops are starting to fall again on the circuit, even if in the meantime, the Suzuki rider has returned to his box to change to slicks!

In the end, everyone except Johann Zarco, Iker Lecuona, Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia returns to his box waiting for less uncertain weather...

Johann zarco establishes the first reference in 1'55.640, very very far from any useful performance, before Jack Miller registers a much more consistent 1'37.646.

A little before mid-session, Johann zarco established his name at the top of a ranking limited to three drivers, in 1'37.063.

This is the moment when the other riders, after observing their opponents on the track, decide to get back on their bikes…

Johann zarco accelerates the pace, first in 1'34.099, before being overtaken by Fabio Quartararo returns 1'34.007.

Pol Espargaro, Iker Lecuona and Franco Morbidelli are also in the top 5 10 minutes from the checkered flag.

Obviously, all this does not last and the table of the best sectors lights up in red almost everywhere: Marc Márquez, Franco Morbidelli then Pol Espargaro successively lead the board.

Polyccio establishes a 1'32.904 quickly pushed back by the 1'32.857 of fabio quartararo.

The Catalan driver finally made a mistake at the Dunlop chicane after being hampered by his teammate. Justice, however, seems to have been served since the latter also found himself in the gravel trap a few seconds later, albeit without gravity at turn #9.

Two minutes from the end of the session, the rain decides to stop the costs...

In extremis, Jack Miller is the only one to leave with rain tires. For nothing.

FP4 ranking of the French MotoGP Grand Prix at Le Mans:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com