Pedrosa pleased to have had dry day in France

Dani Pedrosa had hoped for a dry start to the Le Mans weekend and was happy to have one on Friday, setting the pace ahead of a projected wet Saturday.

“We had a chance to run in the dry, so it was important to get some information and try the tyres as well,” Pedrosa explained to motogp.com. “We were lucky today to get some sun, so the track temperature was not so bad and we could do some laps to see how the bike was. I think it was important to take profit of the conditions.

“I hope the bike is also working well in wet conditions; we have experience here from last year but will still need to go out and check how the grip levels are.”

Marquez has travelled to France as the youngest ever sole leader of the MotoGP™ World Championship, having past Jorge Lorenzo at the last corner in Jerez.

“Today was so good,” the 20-year-old reported. “In the beginning I was struggling a little bit because this track is so small – and with MotoGP it was even smaller!

“We tried to find the best setup and I felt so good this afternoon, especially. For tomorrow it looks like the forecast will be rain and then 50/50 for Sunday, so we will try to do our best and continue like this.”

Should the forecasters be correct about the Saturday rain, the top ten riders to head directly to Q2 Qualifying will have already been decided - as improving lap times in third free practice will be impossible with a wet or even damp track surface.

Repsol Honda Team