MotoGP: Crash Ridden Sessions Lead to 1-2 Qualifying Positions at Le Mans

After seeing numerous crashes during qualifying and practice sessions, the rider grid for Sunday’s French GP is finally set, with a 1-2 qualifying position by Fiat-Yamaha. Valentino Rossi will lead the pack from the pole position, likely to be followed closely by teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Rounding out the top four are the other two aliens, Dani Pedrosa (3rd) and Casey Stoner (4th). More and full qualifying results after the jump.

Nicky Hayden did well during qualifying, and kept close tabs on his teammate by staying only two-hundredths of a second behind Stoner’s GP10. Local favorite Randy de Puniet qualified an evil 6th place, .666 second behind Rossi’s best lap time, much to the delight of French fans in attendance.

The French outing however has not been good for Ben Spies or Alvaro Bautista, who suffered considerably from crashes. Spies called it a day after crashing during FP2, and will start from the 12th position because of it; whereas Bautista had a nasty highside during the same session, which caused the Spanish rider to retire from this weekend’s GP. Mika Kallio also found himself on the ground during FP2, but escaped relatively unharmed.

Racing action will be on SPEED at 8AM EST for American MotoGP fans.

Results from Qualifying at Le Mans for MotoGP’s French GP:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Diff. to Prev.
1	46	Valentino ROSSI	YAMAHA	1’33.408	–	–
2	99	Jorge LORENZO	YAMAHA	1’33.462	0.054	0.054
3	26	Dani PEDROSA	HONDA	1’33.573	0.165	0.111
4	27	Casey STONER	DUCATI	1’33.824	0.416	0.251
5	69	Nicky HAYDEN	DUCATI	1’33.845	0.437	0.021
6	14	Randy DE PUNIET	HONDA	1’34.074	0.666	0.229
7	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	HONDA	1’34.204	0.796	0.130
8	5	Colin EDWARDS	YAMAHA	1’34.304	0.896	0.100
9	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	SUZUKI	1’34.306	0.898	0.002
10	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	DUCATI	1’34.514	1.106	0.208
11	33	Marco MELANDRI	HONDA	1’34.523	1.115	0.009
12	11	Ben SPIES	YAMAHA	1’34.920	1.512	0.397
13	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	HONDA	1’34.942	1.534	0.022
14	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	HONDA	1’34.979	1.571	0.037
15	40	Hector BARBERA	DUCATI	1’35.323	1.915	0.344
16	36	Mika KALLIO	DUCATI	1’35.810	2.402	0.487
RET.	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SUZUKI	–	–	–