Intense FP2 with many riders taking the lead, with the final attack coming in the last seconds from Maverick Viñales.
The sun was shining at Le Mans and the conditions seemed to be good for the riders to show their best.
In the last free practice session before qualifying, Jorge Martín started to be the fastest with a lap time of 1:32.734s, with Jack Miller close behind, but with the Australian taking the lead in the session on the following lap, beating Marc Márquez. The best lap so far was 1:31.482s.
With four laps completed Miguel Oliveira rose to the second best time of the session but it was Miller once again improving his record and cementing himself at the front, followed by M. Márquez who beat the Portuguese by 0.057s.
On the sixth lap in FP2, Álex Márquez jumped to the front of the table with 1:31.266s, with a 0.049s advantage over Francesco Bagnaia, also at a stage of the session in which Aleix Espargaró became the best Aprilia on the track at 0.120s from #73. Many drivers headed to the garage soon after.
Álex crashed shortly after reaching the top of the table:
He had just set the fastest time 💔@alexmarquez73 goes down at T8 💥#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/GGa2NX3pFs
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 11, 2024
Viñales, a couple of minutes later, beat Aleix and became third fastest in the session, at a stage of the session when more riders were in the teams’ garage. With ten minutes to go in the session, this was the top ten:
Five minutes from the end of the session, Jorge Martín showed his grace and took the lead in the session, being 0.017s faster than A. Márquez, but his «reign» was short-lived as Enea Bastianini would take the lead by around a minute later with a lap time of 1:31.236s, 0.013s faster than the previous time recorded by Martín.
In the last few seconds, Viñales took the lead in the session, with Bagnaia taking second with a difference of 0.072s to #12.
The session ended shortly after with the times looking like this: