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avant-match
Qualification
Follow the Grand Prix France live. This MotoGP race starts at 12:55 on 14 May 2011. Find race results, calendar, standings, scores and all of this season’s MotoGP races.
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Highlights
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So it all should make for an interesting race - join us tomorrow at 13:00 for all the action.
So this is the grid after all that drama: 1 Casey Stoner; 2 Marco Simoncelli; 3 Andrea Dovizioso /// 4 Dani Pedrosa; 5 Jorge Lorenzo; 6 Cal Crutchlow (great stuff from the Brit) /// 7 Colin Edwards; 8 Ben Spies; 9 Valentino Rossi /// 10 Nicky Hayden, 11 Randy de Puniet, 12 Alvaro Bautista /// 13 Hiroshi Aoyama; 14 Hector Barbera; 15 Loris Capirossi /// 16 Karel Abraham; 17 Toni Elias
Wow some great late drama and a late fast lap from Dovizioso put Pedrosa off the front row.
Oh my Simoncelli with a lap just .059 behind Stoner.....
And Simoncelli has just popped up with a lap to go second - Stoner has improved his lap too....an effort of 1:33.153
Cal Crutchlow onto the second row!! - Superb stuff from the Brit.
Dovizioso up to third to make it an all Repsol Honda front row - but for now....but then Lorenzo comes back up to third - all happening now.
Rossi get above Hayden but nothing more - back to sixth but he was very quick in the first section and could have improved more.
Hayden back up to sixth and again above team-mate Rossi who is back down to 10th again but the Italian master is on a quick lap.
The field have improved on Stoner - but Pedrosa in second is still 0.282 behind the Aussie.
Simoncelli has managed to take third place back so he puts Lorenzo off the front row.
Elias has spun off and his session should be over. He went into a corner far too early.
The Yamahas finally show speed – Lorenzo with a 1:34.049 moves him all the way to third and Spies has bounced up to seventh.
Rossi now sixth - he is finally beginning to show some speed.
Rossi with his best lap of the weekend of 1:34.632 - but that only puts him eight - he is still behind his team-mate Hayden.
Cal Crutchlow with a huge lap from nowhere and he moves from 15th to fifth! This weekend is his first time ever on the track and the Brit has just produced a superb lap.
Hayden overcooks a corner and is forced to abandon a fast lap - Lorenzo has come back out and he has work to do to get back into this.
Dovizioso jumps up to second for a few seconds but then Pedrosa takes that place back.
Colin Edwards is really showing some great pace - he has just produced a lap that is half a second better than anything he has done this weekend to go fifth and Nicky Hayden has jumped up to sixth which means Lorenzo is now just seventh and Rossi is ninth!
1. Casey Stoner; 2. Dani Pedrosa; 3. Marco Simoncelli; 4. Andrea Dovizioso; 5.Jorge Lorenzo with Stoner 0.715 ahead of Pedrosa and over 1.2 seconds ahead of Dovizioso in fourth.
Colin Edwards has moved up to seventh which means that Rossi has now slipped to eight.
Rookie Karel Abraham with a belting lap puts him ninth and then he proceeds to crash.
The fast laps coming now Colin Edwards has jumped from 14th to 9th - Spies from 15th to 10th - Simoncelli has done his fastest lap but remains third.
AMAZING lap from Stoner – 1:33.401 and he did despite running into some traffic near the end of the lap – that is nearly three quarters of a second ahead of anyone else.
Alvaro Bautista from nowhere has jumped from 16th to ninth and Stoner is on a fast one again.
But Rossi has now dropped to seventh because de Puniet has clocked another quick lap - he is now sixth - a great recovery from the Frenchman.
Rossi is still sixth but he is getting faster - he has just produced a 1:34.900 which by a couple of 100ths of a second his fastest lap of the weekend and less than a second off Stoner.
And de Puniet again manages to improve on that time and has jumped up to ninth with a 1:35.341 effort - the top four remain all Hondas.
De Puniet has managed to sort his bike out and is back out there. He has just produced a lap that is good enough for 12th.
Bit of a lull in proceedings at the moment – not much speed out there – you get the sense that there are still some fireworks to come though.
Hiroshi Aoyama with a fast lap has just jumped up from 11th to 7th - good stuff from the Japanese rider.
Rossi trying to push it but his bike just doesn't have the speed – he is nearly 1.3 seconds behind Stoner's pace. He remains sixth.
Great stuff from Stoner - 1:33.929 - he takes over from his team-mate Pedrosa at the top of the timesheets.
Stoner on a fast lap....looks like he is going to take the lead.
Where we are at: 1 Dani Pedrosa 1:34.116; 2 Casey Stoner +00.028; 3 Marco Simoncelli +00.225; 4 Andrea Dovizioso +00.530; 5 Jorge Lorenzo +00.722; 6 Valentino Rossi +01.050; 7 Nicky Hayden +01.212; 8 Cal Crutchlow +01.304
A good few of the big guns have gone back into the pits to have a fiddle with the bike and a chat with the tech man.
Pedrosa has produced a lap of 1:34.116 - that has put him in the lead and is his fastest lap of the entire weekend.
Top five at the moment is 1. Stoner; 2. Simoncelli; 3. Pedrosa, 4.Dovizioso, 5. Lorenzo with Rossi currently sixth.
De Puniet has found himself in the gravel....he lost control of his back tire in the final section and spun off...looked like a driver error and he is lucky he did not hurt himself. Damage to the bike too so his afternoon should be over.
Stoner now goes 1:34.144 which is not far off the 1:33.815 he produced in practice this morning.
Stoner has just flexed his muscles with a 1:34.927 effort and he is about to go much faster.
Lorenzo has shaved nearly two seconds off that time - 1:35.311 - we're still very much in the feeler stages.
Jorge Lorenzo with the first speeding lap – he has clocked 1:37.126
Temperature is 64F (18C) and on the track it is 91F (33C) while the wind speed is 9km/h.
And the session is underway....bikes streaming out onto the track now.
While waiting to get underway why not check out the latest pictures from Le Mans
A good chance this weekend for Stoner to put pressure on the Spanish leaders of the Championship Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa
Casey Stoner came out on top in a late battle with Marco Simoncelli to set the fastest time in final practice - the Hondas have been dominant all weekend so far.
Hello bike fans and welcome to our live coverage of qualification for the French GP here in Le Mans – we will be underway in 10 minutes.