Dovizioso Sets the Pace in FP1 at Le Mans

Now, rain and changing weather at Le Mans is probably one of the trademarks of the French circuit, so it's hard to be surprised about this. Still, Dovizioso's pace in the kick-off practice session was still some half a second off the circuit record and significantly slower than the fastest lap.

Desmo Dovi, who also updated his pit board design for the werkend, topped FP1 with a 1'34.034 lap and was followed by the reigning champion, Marc Marquez, whose last flying lap brought him 0.246s behind the Italian.

Tight gaps in FP1

Jorge Lorenzo also showed a very good pace in FP1 and was only 21 thousandths of a second slower than Marquez. It was also on his last lap when he managed to get in front of a once more very fast Cal Crutchlow, 0.009s slower than the Spaniard. Pol Espargaro was also very close to the Englishman, while Scott Redding finished the first practice in a very strong sixth position.

Rossi was seventh and was followed by Yonny Hernandez, Andrea Iannone and Bradley Smith for the top ten. Dani Pedrosa took things easy in FP1 and looks like he is getting used to the bike. He was 13th, 1.3 seconds off Dovizioso's pace.

Ahead of the fifth round of the season, Rossi leads with 82 points, followed by Dovizioso with 67, Lorenzo with 62, while Marquez sits in fourth with 56, six ahead of Iannone.