Fabio Quartararo prevailed in an epic duel with Marc Marquez to take pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday. Quartararo’s magnificent lap sent the Le Mans crowd into a frenzy.
Marquez, who had taken the first four poles of the 2025 season, looked almost unbeatable after blitzing the field early on. His 1:29.4 was a daunting benchmark.
Quartararo initially went second, three-tenths off. But adding weight to the motorsport cliche that home support unlocks extra speed, he managed to deliver a record-breaking 1:29.324 with his last lap.
Marquez still had time for another go at this point, but he backed off before the chequered flag. World championship leader Alex Marquez completed the front row.
Quartararo has now scored back-to-back pole positions, having ended a drought stretching back to 2022 in Jerez last time out. He went down in the Sprint race before finishing an excellent second in the Grand Prix.
Marc Marquez gives kudos to Fabio Quartararo after Le Mans duel
Marquez spoke to TNT Sports in parc ferme after narrowly missing out on French Grand Prix pole. He pointed out that both riders had obliterated the previous lap record – Jorge Martin’s 1:29.919 in 2024.
The six-time MotoGP champion told Ducati crew chief Marco Rigamonti that his lap was ‘nice’. On that basis, he simply had respect for Quartararo’s effort.
Marquez feels that Quartararo has clearly made a step forward with the Yamaha bike. Last year, he often struggled to haul his underperforming M1 into Q2.
“Six-tenths faster than the previous record!” Marquez said. “It’s amazing. We’re riding at a super-high level.
“Fabio made a step in Jerez already, and he reconfirmed it here. He deserves the pole, because I said to Rigamonti that my lap was clean, my lap was nice, it was a good one.
“But he did a better lap, so apart from that, happy with the pace, happy with the front row. He will be super motivated, so we need to understand where the level is for the race.”
Fabio Quartararo’s ‘awful’ experiment in French Grand Prix qualifying
Speaking after practice, Quartararo warned that Francesco Bagnaia shouldn’t be underestimated. However, the Italian wasn’t a factor in the fight for pole, ending up a rather anonymous fifth.
Quartararo still doesn’t think Yamaha are fast enough to win races. But they are fast enough to disrupt Ducati, when it looked in the opening rounds as if the Bologna outfit would monopolise the top-six positions almost every weekend.
El Diablo admitted in Jerez that he deliberately overrode the bike during the Sprint. He just wanted to enjoy the experience of leading again, even if it meant falling on lap two.
After qualifying, Neil Hodgson noticed that Quartararo used an ‘awful’ line into turn one. He was likely practising for his defence at the start of the two races.
