French GP Qualifying: Bagnaia snatches pole from Marquez, miraculous Quartararo

The fastest of all at Le Mans is Pecco Bagnaia, the top four within a tenth: here is the starting grid for the sprint race and the full race.

The MotoGP Qualifying for the 2026 French Grand Prix rewards Francesco Bagnaia, who takes pole position in 1'29"634. The Piedmontese rider confirmed the improvements already glimpsed in Friday practice. Ducati one-two with Marc Marquez second by 12 thousandths, and the front row completed by the Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi, just 23 thousandths behind his future teammate.

Less than a tenth behind Pecco is also Fabio Di Giannantonio, who leads the second row and on the grid will be flanked by Pedro Acosta’s KTM and Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha. Notable performance by the French rider with an M1 that at Le Mans seems a bit more competitive than in recent Grands Prix. We’ll see if the Sprint and the Race will also bring positive confirmation.

The third row is led by Joan Mir’s Honda, with Jorge Martin’s Aprilia and the Aprilia Trackhouse starting nearby. Only tenth for Alex Marquez, who crashed a few minutes before the end of MotoGP Q2. Johann Zarco goes no further than 11th with the LCR Honda, while Alex Rins on the other factory Yamaha closes out the fourth row.

The most awaited rider in Q1 was Marc Marquez, surprisingly left out of the top 10 in Friday afternoon’s pre-qualifying. He didn’t disappoint: he took first place with a time of 1'29"288, better than the record (1'29"324) set in 2025 by Fabio Quartararo, who pulled off a miracle today by securing second for Q2. Despite conceding 431 thousandths to the Ducati rider, the 2021 MotoGP champion was still excellent on his Yamaha M1.

As for the Italians in Q1: Enea Bastianini will start 14th with the Tech3 team’s KTM (he crashed at Turn 3 at the start of the session), Luca Marini 15th with the HRC Honda, Franco Morbidelli 16th with the VR46 team’s Ducati. Among the rookies, Toprak Razgatlioglu (17th) did better than Diogo Moreira (18th). Fermin Aldeguer struggled, 20th and third-last on the grid.