There’s no better way to start a race weekend than topping the timesheets on Friday! The French Grand Prix got underway today at the legendary Circuit Bugatti at Le Mans as Jaume Masià made his way to the top while Tatsuki Suzuki struggled after crashing in the afternoon. Let’s analyse it all:
- Cold temperatures but a sunny sky welcomed the first day of track action at Le Mans.
- With dry conditions on track, Le0pard riders Jaume Masiá and Tatsuki Suzuki finished Practice 1 in 7th and 9th position respectively, with a 1’43.383 and a 1’43.465.
- Practice 2 started with a slight rise in the temperatures, which allowed the riders to improve their times.
- Jaume Masià left it late to set his fastest time of the day. With a lap time of 1’41.846, the Spaniard moved up to 1st, finishing the day on top of the combined standings.
- On the other side of the box, Tatsuki Suzuki was working hard on improving his lap time when he crashed at Turn 11 in the early stages of the session.
- The rider immediately returned to the pits eager to get back on track as the team worked quickly to repair the bike. At the end, the Japanese rider was able to do one more lap and couldn’t improve his time, finishing in 23rd position today with the 1’43.465 he set earlier in Practice 1.
- Tomorrow awaits!
You have to push hard to set the time I did! To be honest, I would have liked to achieve it in a more comfortable way. The feeling wasn’t great at all today. I’m happy that we finished on top, but we still have a lot of work to do this weekend, starting with improving on the direction changes”
We struggled today in the morning due to the cold, but we knew we would have a chance to improve our time in the afternoon in Practice 2. Unfortunately, I crashed at Turn 11 at the beginning of the session and couldn’t set any faster laps. We will try again tomorrow!”
