Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo positioned himself as a key protagonist for the French Grand Prix as he rode his YZR-M1 to first place today in the combined free practice session times. Teammate Rossi worked hard to find the right setting to suit the technical French track and ended the day in tenth place.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Jorge Lorenzo was quick to display his consistent pace today as he prepared for Sunday's Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. The just turned 29-year-old dominated the second free practice session and was the only rider to dip under the 1'33s mark.

Valentino Rossi also put in a solid effort, but struggled to find a good stability. He was able to better his time throughout the day to take tenth position in the combined timings.

Lorenzo was looking strong in the morning and gradually improved his lap times in the cooler first 45-minutes free practice session. As he focused on finding a set-up to suit Le Mans circuit's stop-and-go nature he clocked a best time of 1'34.086s for second place, just 0.044s from the first.

The Spaniard continued to shave off time of his provisional best lap in the afternoon. Having found a good basis for his YZR-M1 in the morning, it only took a couple of minutes for him to take over at the top the timesheets with a hot lap of 1'33.572s lap. Though already in the lead, he had one more trick up his sleeve. With the expectation that tomorrow's conditions might not be as good as today's, he gave a final push in the final minutes of the session to be assured of a spot in Q2 and set a brilliant 1'32.830s lap for first place, with a 0.339s lead over his closest rival.

Teammate Rossi also was eager to start work at the beginning of the morning practice in France. He topped the provisional standing just a few minutes into the FP1 session, but was later held back due to stability issues on his bike. He went on to look for a good tyre and settings combination and booked progress throughout the session to finish in fifth place with a 1'34.452s lap, 0.410s from the front.

He continued to focus on improving the balance of his bike in the afternoon and was able to better his pace. Having found his rhythm at the end of the session, he was riding laps under the 1'34-mark with a best lap of 1'33.974s but was unable to climb up in the ranking order and wrapped up the day in tenth place, 1.144s behind his teammate.

 Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

"Jorge had a strong start to the weekend and so far he is on schedule with the progress that he made in FP1 and FP2. He has been fast and consistent since the first session and was in a class on his own in FP2. Vale suffered from a lack of stability on his bike since the beginning of the morning session and whilst trying to solve it unfortunately it compromised a few other areas and the bike became heavier to ride, making him more uncomfortable. Both riders were able to compare different tyre choices, but it's too early to judge. Tonight we will certainly work on some solutions that we will test in FP3 tomorrow to further improve the set-up of the bikes."

Jorge Lorenzo - 1st / 1'32.830 / 39 laps

"I am very satisfied because from the beginning we started with a good setting and I was relatively fast, quite comfortably. In the afternoon we improved the bike a little bit and we went even faster with quite a big difference, a couple of tenths, to the rider in second place. It wasn't just one lap, we also had a good pace so it was a very good start to the weekend. Let's see if tomorrow we can increase the pace a little bit more and prepare for the race to our best capabilities."

Valentino Rossi - 10th / 1'33.974 / 41 laps

"We tried a lot of different things for the setting because this morning I wasn't fast enough, but unfortunately in the afternoon the situation was worse and we didn't find the right way. In fact, in the morning I was also quite slow and for this reason I didn't try the third tyre from Michelin, because we didn't have time. I will try it tomorrow morning."

1   - Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 01'32.830
2   - Andrea Iannone Ducati ITA 01'33.169
3   - Marc Marquez Honda ESP 01'33.313 
4   - Pol Espargaro Yamaha ESP 01'33.406
5   - Andrea Dovizioso Ducati ITA 01'33.574
6   - Aleix Espargaro Suzuki ESP 01'33.595
7   - Maverick Viñales Suzuki ESP 01'33.613
8   - Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 01'33.748
9   - Hector Barbera Ducati ESP 01'33.951
10 - Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 01'33.974
11 - Danilo Petrucci Ducati ITA 01'34.050
12 - Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 01'34.053
13 - Scott Redding Ducati GBR 01'34.083
14 - Bradley Smith Yamaha GBR 01'34.306
15 - Loris Baz Ducati FRA 01'34.364
16 - Eugene Laverty Ducati GBR 01'34.425
17 - Yonny Hernandez Ducati COL 01'34.531
18 - Jack Miller Honda AUS 01'34.656
19 - Stefan Bradl Aprilia DEU 01'34.742
20 - Tito Rabat Honda ESP 01'34.789
21 - Alvaro Bautista Aprilia ESP 01'35.089