Jorge Martín rocketed from eighth on the grid to win the 13-lap MotoGP Sprint at Le Mans, sweeping around the outside of teammate Marco Bezzecchi into the opening chicane to take the lead. He led from that opening move, controlled the pace and crossed the line 1.107 seconds clear of Francesco Bagnaia.

The victory was Martín’s second Sprint win of the 2026 season and extended his record to 18 career sprint wins. Marco Bezzecchi recovered to third, and the result trimmed Bezzecchi’s championship advantage to six points, with the standings moved to Bezzecchi 108 and Martín 102 after the Sprint.

The Sprint was marred by a violent highside for reigning champion Marc Márquez on the penultimate lap. Márquez fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot, was declared unfit for the remainder of the Le Mans weekend and is set to undergo surgery in Madrid, which also brought forward a planned shoulder operation. Several other riders retired or crashed during the Sprint, reshuffling weekend momentum as the paddock prepared for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Izan Guevara set the weekend’s pace at the Moto2 French Grand Prix at Le Mans, taking pole for BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha on a Boscoscuro chassis with Pirelli tires. He took pole in qualifying with a 1:33.910, putting him at the head of the 28-rider grid. He had also topped FP2 with a session-best 1:33.931 on lap 14 (average 160.3 km/h), lowering Manuel Gonzalez’s 2025 FP2 benchmark of 1:34.315.

Qualifying produced a tightly bunched front row and top six. Daniel Holgado split the front row with a 1:33.996 for second, Filip Salac was third with a 1:34.020, Barry Baltus and Manuel Gonzalez recorded matching 1:34.076s to occupy fourth and fifth, and American Joe Roberts qualified sixth with a 1:34.090. Less than two-tenths of a second separated the top two and only a few tenths covered the front six.

Practice across the weekend reinforced Guevara’s advantage and the depth of the field. Manuel Gonzalez led Free Practice One with a 1:34.740 on his Kalex, with Guevara second. On Friday afternoon Guevara topped a practice run with a 1:34.348, edging Celestino Vietti by 0.002 seconds and Barry Baltus by 0.003. FP2 was dominated by Guevara, the only rider in the 1:33s in that session, with Baltus, Salac and Gonzalez among the next quickest. All sessions ran in dry conditions on the 4.19 km Le Mans circuit. Teams used Boscoscuro and Kalex chassis across the entry list, and competitors ran Pirelli control tires.

Francesco Bagnaia took pole position at Saturday’s MotoGP qualifying at Le Mans, posting a 1:29.634 on his final flying lap to move from seventh into the top spot. The time gave Bagnaia his first pole of the 2026 season and his first since the 2025 Malaysian Grand Prix, and it edged teammate Marc Marquez by 0.012 seconds to deliver a Ducati one-two on the front row.

Marc Marquez reached Q2 by advancing from Q1 after setting a new Q1 lap record, but he could not match that pace in Q2, posting a 1:29.646. He abandoned his final attempts after a cool-down-lap run-in with Fabio Di Giannantonio. Marquez was forced into Q1 after yellow flags from a late Bagnaia crash in practice denied him a final flying lap, and he described his Q1 position as unlucky.

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi completed the front row in third, just 0.023 seconds off pole. Fabio Di Giannantonio qualified fourth after alleging he was held on his final lap, an incident stewards investigated and took no action on. Pedro Acosta and Fabio Quartararo filled the second row. Friday and Saturday practice showed a tightly bunched field with Johann Zarco topping FP2, and a forecast of rain for Sunday made grid position and tire choice potentially decisive for the race.

Ducati split its Le Mans garage by running a new 2026 side fairing on Pecco Bagnaia, Álex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Marc Márquez reverted to GP25-spec 2025 side-fairing elements. Bagnaia said Ducati were experiencing “a pretty difficult time,” but that progress from the Jerez test carried over to Le Mans and he was “much happier” with the new fairing because he could push and control the tires, even as the bike still lacked some turning and stopping performance.

On-track outcomes reflected the split. Bagnaia ran the new fairing and finished third on Friday despite a late crash that produced yellow flags and denied Marc Márquez a final flying lap, leaving Márquez 13th in practice and forced into Q1. Márquez said he feels “considerably slower” on the GP26, lacks front-end feel in fast and left-hand corners and described his Q1 position as “unlucky,” though he reported feeling better through the day. Álex Márquez and Di Giannantonio used the 2026 fairing and progressed directly to Q2, and three Ducati riders filled three of the top four spots on the timesheets. Weather forecasts pointing to a high chance of rain could further shape setup choices before qualifying.

Ducati described the approach as iterative development, testing the new aero on multiple riders while keeping rider-specific setups available. Team manager Davide Tardozzi said “the squad follows each rider’s preferences,” and Ducati noted the split at Le Mans highlighted how rider size, riding style and recent form influence technical direction. Some reports suggested limited units might have led the squad to save the package for Barcelona, and the weekend will provide immediate feedback on whether the 2026 side-fairing delivers the expected turning gains and helps Ducati regain consistent front-running form.

Luca Marini set the fastest lap in Friday FP1 at the French GP in Le Mans, posting a 1:30.857 to put Honda on top in the dry, sunny 45-minute session. Pedro Acosta (KTM) moved into the leading positions in the final minutes after fitting new rubber, and Johann Zarco put a second Honda in the top three, the quickest of those on older tyres. Fabio Di Giannantonio led for much of FP1 before finishing fourth for VR46, while Enea Bastianini climbed to second late in the session, staying close to Di Giannantonio’s earlier benchmark.

Alex Rins finished sixth and Joan Mir showed competitive early pace. Ducati rider Marc Márquez ran on used tyres and was ninth, and championship leader Marco Bezzecchi ran on used rubber and ended FP1 14th. Tech3 called up Jonas Folger to replace the sidelined Maverick Viñales; Folger completed FP1 at the back. Pramac rookie Toprak Razgatlıoğlu struggled, Francesco Bagnaia showed brief speed before sliding down the order, Fabio Quartararo tested last year’s Inline4 tri-plane front wing, and Franco Morbidelli sat out the opening five minutes as a penalty.

Support-class FP1s supplied early benchmarks too. In Moto2 Manuel Gonzalez (Kalex) topped FP1 with a 1:34.740 ahead of Izan Guevara and Celestino Vietti, while in Moto3 Alvaro Carpe led with a 1:41.252 as very tight gaps underlined a competitive opening practice. The sessions featured mixed tyre strategies and equipment choices, and the forecast called for deteriorating conditions later in the weekend, raising the prospect of another rain-affected French GP.

Jonas Folger has been named to replace Maverick Vinales on the KTM-backed Tech3 entry for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans after test rider Dani Pedrosa declined a late call-up. KTM had hoped Pedrosa would step in following a Jerez test; Pedrosa completed 30 laps with a best time of 1:37.483, said, “My time has passed,” and reiterated he does not intend to return to full-time racing. He also turned down the role in part because test-rider contract terms were reduced and wildcard incentives were removed.

KTM turned to Folger to ensure Tech3 fields two riders under MotoGP rules after Pol Espargaro’s injury left the team obliged to find a replacement. Vinales was ruled out of Le Mans while recovering from shoulder surgery in early April to remove a screw inserted after a qualifying crash at the German Grand Prix, and he was advised to miss the French round. He is expected to return at his home Grand Prix in Barcelona on May 15–17. Tech3 ran a single entry in Vinales’s absence at recent rounds and chose not to run a replacement at the United States and Spanish Grands Prix.

Folger, who will turn 33 in August, has been cleared to compete at Le Mans as a short-term, event-specific replacement. He last raced in MotoGP in 2023 when he stood in for Pol Espargaro over six rounds, scoring nine points with a best finish of 12th at Austin and a 14th at Assen on June 25, 2023, which means he has been away from MotoGP for roughly 1,050 days. A former winner in Moto3 and Moto2 and Tech3’s only MotoGP podium finisher at his home race in 2017, Folger said he does not expect any “miracles” and that his immediate priorities are to ride the bike, get the most out of it for himself and ensure the team has a rider on track. He said he does not feel pressure from KTM. Tech3 described the move as a pragmatic, short-term replacement tied to Vinales’s medical recovery rather than a permanent roster change.

Marco Bezzecchi enters the Michelin Grand Prix of France at Le Mans with an 11-point championship lead over teammate Jorge Martin after finishing second in Jerez, a margin that frames the weekend as a crucial junction in the 2026 title fight. Bezzecchi’s winning streak ended in Spain, but Aprilia’s strength was clear as all four of its bikes finished inside the top six at Jerez. Ducati showed pace with a Sprint 1-2 at Jerez and will seek to close the gap after Alex Márquez’s Spanish GP victory and a positive Jerez test, but the manufacturer also suffered a double DNF in the main race that left Francesco Bagnaia 44 points adrift. Marc Márquez crashed and failed to finish in Spain, complicating his own championship defense, while Fabio Di Giannantonio moved up to third in the standings and Pedro Acosta slipped to 10th.

The French round, the fifth of the season, runs Friday May 8 through Sunday May 10 at the Bugatti circuit and features a sprint race on Saturday and a 25-lap Grand Prix on Sunday. Organizers expect a capacity, vocal home crowd and have programmed a full paddock schedule beginning with Thursday’s Media Day and continuing through a packed weekend of track action and fan activities. French riders Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo will be in the spotlight for the home fans, with Zarco, last year’s Le Mans winner, listed as a potential factor if rain arrives. Teams are monitoring the unpredictable weather at Le Mans as a possible wildcard.

The paddock also reported a late lineup change as Jonas Folger will make a surprise MotoGP return at Le Mans, replacing the injured Maverick Viñales for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 squad. Fans can follow the weekend live as MotoGP’s VideoPass will stream all sessions, with UK viewers able to watch on TNT Sports via HBO Max and catch highlights on Quest. Crash.net will provide live text updates throughout the weekend.

The Grand Prix Commission has banned wildcard entries in the MotoGP class from the 2027 season, removing a development route teams had used to race prototypes and test new materials during Grand Prix weekends. The ban is intended to tighten on-track development pathways and harmonize restrictions across manufacturers, and it carries technical and competitive implications for manufacturers and lower-ranked teams that benefited from the A-D concessions system.

The restriction applies to all manufacturers regardless of concession rank, and the Commission said that from 2027 test riders may race only when replacing injured full-time riders. Wildcards will remain permitted in Moto2 and Moto3. The Commission also ruled that wildcards entered in 2026 may not run 2027-spec 850cc machinery, effective immediately; Ducati is unaffected because it already could not field wildcards under its existing A concession. The decision followed recent wildcard outings, including Augusto Fernández and Lorenzo Savadori at the Spanish Grand Prix, and Yamaha’s late 2025 wildcard program to develop its V4-powered M1, with Fernández debuting that bike at Misano in 2025.

The package included technical, operational and safety tweaks. The tire pressure monitoring system will be retained for 2027, and race-procedure changes increase the warm-up lap countdown after a Start Delayed from a three-minute board to a five-minute board. The Commission approved optional heart-rate monitors for Moto2 and Moto3 and issued clarifications on post-injury testing and IMU electronics homologation. These rulings were adopted in Grand Prix Commission meetings earlier this year; some measures take effect immediately, while others will be implemented before or during the 2027 season.

Aprilia ran a private test at Jerez of its 2027 850cc MotoGP prototype, two days after the official post-race test, and released photos and video of the session. Test rider Lorenzo Savadori completed the prototype’s first on-track laps in wet conditions, and Aprilia said the engine had been running since the previous year. The private outing followed public 2027 shakedowns by KTM, Honda and Ducati, and Yamaha remained the only factory not to have publicly showcased a new 2027 bike, an early M1 prototype believed to have run privately in Japan. Savadori, who retired from the Jerez Sprint after contact with Toprak Razgatlioglu, said he would test new parts over the weekend that Aprilia planned to pass to factory riders Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin.

The prototype displayed 2027-spec aerodynamic revisions, including a revised nose profile and a protruding front wing. Aprilia also fitted a novel flow diverter nicknamed “elephant ears,” two wing elements mounted at the sides of the front fairing that create a third tier of aerodynamic surfaces, and the team had introduced new upper-fairing winglets on the RS-GP26 during the official Jerez test.

Aprilia’s aero program, led by technical boss Fabiano Sterlacchini and aero head Marco De Luca, gathered additional data using a tail-mounted “satellite” sensor as the team sought to refine designs amid concerns that current aerodynamic concepts may be nearing performance limits. The outing was framed as part of broader development ahead of the 2027 rules change that will shift MotoGP to an 850cc formula, switch from Michelin to Pirelli tires, impose tighter aerodynamic limits, ban ride-height devices and require 100 percent non-fossil-origin fuel. The prototype’s track runs followed extensive bench testing and Pirelli tire work alongside Aprilia’s current 1000cc RS-GP, and the updates come amid lingering controversy over Aprilia’s earlier “leg wing” concept, which rivals largely copied and which Aprilia showed yielded measurable gains, with Aprilia leading the 2026 championship and locked in an aero arms race with Ducati as the two manufacturers compete for the 2026 title.