Miller tops opening Le Mans MotoGP practice by 1.5s

Mixed-weather specialist Jack Miller reigned supreme in the first MotoGP practice ahead of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans.

A wet but drying track greeted the MotoGP field for the start of the session, having been preceded by a first Moto3 practice that devolved into a crashfest, with 17 falls – nine of those coming at the Dunlop chicane.

But the premier-class field coped well as the surface continued to dry throughout, with the only incident of note in the first half-hour of the session coming when Joan Mir’s dashboard flashed an alarm light between the two Garage Vert right-handers, forcing him to pull over.

Just past the 30-minute mark, as Johann Zarco led Marc Marquez at the top of the timing screens, Miller and Alex Marquez took the plunge and came out of the pits on slick rubber.

And while the younger Marquez crashed at the Dunlop chicane on his first slick-tyre push lap, Miller’s first flyer was already just 0.009s slower than Zarco’s, and his follow-up was 2.4 seconds clear.

But though several riders looked to follow Miller’s example at that point, the rain returned shortly after he’d logged his time, meaning the window for soft-tyre improvements was closed right away.

Zarco did improve by nine tenths at the chequered flag to secure second and prop up a Ducati 1-2, ahead of Mir’s Suzuki and the works Honda duo of Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez.

Lorenzo Savadori had an impressive session for Aprilia and moved up to sixth late on, followed by Miller’s team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, Suzuki’s Alex Rins and the other Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

The top 10 was formed in a flurry of late improvement, and it left all four Yamahas outside, meaning that all four could need to contest Q1 if FP2 and FP3 are hit by rain. However, a dry track is currently forecast for the Friday afternoon session.

The only rider to crash beyond the junior Marquez was Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, who suffered a bizarre tip-off at low speed at the Dunlop chicane immediately after exiting the pits.

Practice 1 Results