Lorenzo smashes circuit record to take pole at Le Mans

Jorge Lorenzo has set the fastest ever two-wheeled lap of Le Mans en route to not only taking pole position for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix, but also to completely dominate the rest of the field by taking pole by half a second.

However, the field was much closer behind him, with Marc Marquez and Andrea Iannone separated by only 0.053 behind the reigning world champion.

Pol Espargaró was a strong second row leader at the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha team’s home squad, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and the team’s second bike of a much-improved Bradley Smith.

Valentino Rossi’s strong qualifying performance slipped as he finished the day in seventh, with Maverick Viñales and Cal Crutchlow following him. Danilo Petrucci, returning from injury, rounded out the top ten.

Dani Pedrosa was a distant eleventh after a crash in the early stages of Q2, joined by the second Suzuki of Aleix Espargaró on the fourth row.

Scott Redding was a disappointing 14^th, while Eugene Laverty will start 16^th.