Espargaró third in Le Mans qualifying, Pons and Rabat to start from sixth row

Pol Espargaró will start from the front row of the grid for the second time in four races, posting the third-fastest laptime in the qualifying for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Polyccio improved his laptime from yesterday by three tenths and finished behind Marc Márquez and Swiss rider Thomas Lüthi, with whom he shared the podium in the last two racees.

Axel Pons and Tito Rabat will start from the sixth row of the grid, the former after taking an important step forward after three races with setup problems, and the latter suffering from tyre problems and affected by the rain coming down every time he went out on track with new soft tyres.

3. POL ESPARGARÓ, 1.38.190 “I’m happy, because a first row is always the best way to start a race, especially at a circuit which has two such difficult first corners as Le Mans. I’m having a mixed feeling, because the weather conditions prevented us from making the most of the new tyres, the rain came when I put on the second set of soft tyres and I expected to get into the 1’37s. I hope tomorrow it won’t rain and we can fight to win the race, although even if the forecasts are right and it rains, we’ll still try to be competitive and finish at the front.”

16. AXEL PONS, 1.39.105 “I made a lot of progress since the race in Portugal and now I start to be in the positions I was looking for at the start of the season. The crash last year in Malaysia has held me back at the beginning of this championship, but now I start to feel good on the bike and all weekend my laptimes have been very close to those fighting for the points. The only thing was that when I pushed to improve the laptime it started to rain, but I’m happy with the position and convinced that tomorrow we can add the first points of the year.”

18. TITO RABAT, 1.39.258 “It’s been a difficult qualifying and we didn’t take advantage of the best part. We started without risking anything and this came back to haunt us, because when we put on the good tyre in the middle of the session the track wasn’t in the best condition because of some rain and it was impossible to push. Everything went upside down, first with a tyre which lost pressure and then we couldn’t take advantage of the last new compound. Tomorrow we start from far behind, but I will try to make a good start and move ahead in the first laps to score many points.”

Source: Pons Racing