Practice report
MotoGP French GP
French MotoGP: Miller dominates damp opening practice
Ducati's Jack Miller dominated a damp first practice for the MotoGP French Grand Prix having gambled on a slick-tyre lap late on.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: May 14, 2021, 5:45 PM
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The Le Mans weekend is set to be disrupted by wet weather for the duration of the three days, with the opening session taking place in damp conditions.
That meant laptimes were improved significantly across the opening stages, with Spanish Grand Prix winner Miller annexing top spot at the start of FP1.
The Ducati rider set the initial pace with a 1m47.320s, which he would improve over the next few tours to a 1m43.312s.
A few moments later, KTM's Miguel Oliveira took over from Miller with a 1m42.824s, before Honda's Marc Marquez moved clear with a 1m42.037s.
At the same time reigning world champion Joan Mir edged ahead with a 1m41.854s, having had to grab his second bike when his other Suzuki sounded an alarm at Turn 8 15 minutes into FP1.
Johann Zarco moved ahead of Mir on his Pramac Ducati with a 1m41.631s, demoting Miller again moments later with a 1m40.796s, which he followed up with a 1m40.398s.
With dry lines appearing on track, Miller gambled on slicks in the final 12 minutes along with LCR's Alex Marquez.
Marquez's effort ended at Turn 3 with seven minutes remaining when he crashed, but Miller was able to jump up to second with a 1m40.407s.
And on his following tour, the Ducati rider monstered the field by 2.3s with a 1m38.007s, timing this lap to perfection as spots of rain returned.
This forced the field back onto wet tyres to close out the session, with a number of late improvements shuffling the provisional Q2 order for Saturday inside the top 10.
Zarco cut Miller's advantage down to a still sizable 1.4s with a final effort of 1m39.488s, with Mir completing the top three ahead of factory Honda duo Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez.
Aprilia's Lorenzo Savadori was an impressive sixth on the RS-GP, with the rookie armed with some experience of wet conditions in MotoGP from last year's European GP weekend.
Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia on the sister factory Ducati was seventh, with Oliveira, Suzuki's Alex Rins and the other Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro completing the top 10.
Should the weather worsen across the rest of Friday and Saturday morning, Yamaha face having all four of its riders going through Q1 as none of them made it into the top 10 in FP1.
Maverick Vinales was fastest Yamaha rider in 12th having crashed late on, with Petronas SRT duo Franco Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi trailing him.
Fresh from arm-pump surgery after the Jerez race, home favourite Fabio Quartararo was 3.6s off the pace in 16th.
Last year's wet French GP race winner Danilo Petrucci was a low-key 19th on the Tech3 KTM.
Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap 1 Jack Miller
Ducati 14 1'38.007 2 Johann Zarco
Ducati 18 1'39.488 1.481 3 Joan Mir
Suzuki 13 1'40.069 2.062 4 Pol Espargaro
Honda 16 1'40.115 2.108 5 Marc Marquez
Honda 18 1'40.121 2.114 6 Lorenzo Savadori
Aprilia 18 1'40.244 2.237 7 Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 22 1'40.256 2.249 8 Miguel Oliveira
KTM 16 1'40.582 2.575 9 Alex Rins
Suzuki 16 1'40.679 2.672 10 Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 14 1'41.029 3.022 11 Alex Marquez
Honda 19 1'41.258 3.251 12 Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 14 1'41.299 3.292 13 Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 21 1'41.423 3.416 14 Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 20 1'41.524 3.517 15 Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 17 1'41.576 3.569 16 Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 21 1'41.641 3.634 17 Iker Lecuona
KTM 18 1'42.500 4.493 18 Brad Binder
KTM 19 1'42.899 4.892 19 Danilo Petrucci
KTM 12 1'43.045 5.038 20 Luca Marini
Ducati 18 1'43.262 5.255 21 Tito Rabat
Ducati 21 1'43.469 5.462 22 Enea Bastianini
Ducati 16 1'43.644 5.637 View full results
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