Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) landed a dream home race pole position at the SHARK Helmets Grand Prix de France, but before qualifying, one of the most important sessions of the weekend took place: FP4. By that time, the rear tyre was 17 laps old and the front 27 – race distance. At the start of his second run the Italian was on a 14 lap old and rear 12 lap old rear tyres, setting three 1:32s – his quickest of a 1:32.533 coming on an 18 lap old rear soft – and the other flying laps were all low 1:33s, the worst of them being a 1:33.274. Viñales strung together five 1:32s on 16-lap old tyres, the best coming in the form of a 1:32.563 on 20-lap old softs. On his last lap of FP4 Dovizioso set a 1:33.068, good enough for P11 on the times.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•