Francesco Bagnaia steals pole away from Marc Marquez at Le Mans
Maverick Vinales set the benchmark time to begin Q2 before going even quicker with a time of 1:31.256s.
Jack Miller, who had been the rider to beat for much of the weekend, narrowly missed out on taking provisional pole.
The KTM rider slotted in second spot - +0.026s behind Vinales before Jorge Martin went fastest for Pramac Ducati.
Keen to secure his first pole since Assen 2021, Vinales responded immediately with a time of 1:31.120s.
In contention through the opening three sectors, Marquez found time on Vinales in the final part of the lap in order to move into second spot.
As he attempted to exit pit lane, Vinales’ bid for pole was thought to be ruined by his RS-GP23 running into a technical issue.
Vinales was aided by Aprilia mechanics as he got back to the garage, before jumping on his second bike with just over two minutes to go.
On-track, Vinales’s teammate was out of contention as Aleix Espargaro suffered a very fast fall at turn one.
Following Martin closely, Marquez set a sensational lap to go two tenths clear of anyone.
A lap that was the fastest of the weekend and seemingly out of reach for his competitors, was instead beaten by Bagnaia as the world champion gained time in the final sector.
Disappointment for Fabio Quartararo in MotoGP Q1 at Le Mans
While Luca Marini and Quartararo would have been considered the favourites to advance from Q1, plenty of others including Alex Rins and Joan Mir were looking to spoil the party.
Using a soft-soft combination on the front and rear, Marini set a banker lap of 1:33.637s to go quickest, however, Franco Morbidelli went six tenths faster.
That was before Quartararo blasted to the top of the leaderboard thanks to the first sub 1m 32s lap of the session.
Quartararo then improved by over half a second to move well clear of Mir and Morbidelli. Marini managed to slide into second with his final lap of the opening stint, however, the deficit facing Marini was still over four tenths.
Fast throughout the practice sessions, Augusto Fernandez shocked the riders ahead of him by going quickest thanks to a sensational final sector.
Despite closing the deficit to Fernandez on his penultimate lap of the session, Quartararo failed to improve with his final effort as Marini instead went top.
Marini’s lap, along with Fernandez remaining in second, resulted in Quartararo being bumped down to third which is 13th on the grid for both races.
