Viñales leads first practice in France

Moto3™ championship leader Maverick Viñales has topped the opening practice session for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. The Team Calvo rider led Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins and Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger.

There were a few drops of rain at historic Le Mans this morning, but to the relief of the riders not a sufficient amount to alter track conditions. Viñales topped the timesheets with a lap time of 1’45.018. This edged out Rins by over half a second as, behind Folger, Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Luis Salom and GO&FUN Gresini Moto3’s Niccolo Antonelli rounded out the top five.

Finland’s Niklas Ajo was sixth for Avant Tecno from San Carlo Team Italia’s Romano Fenati, Redox RW Racing GP’s Jakub Kornfeil, Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Ambrogio Racing’s Danny Webb. It was a chiefly incident-free session, with a small run off-track for Salom being the only moment of drama.

Moto3™ practice for the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France will continue with the second session, beginning at 1:10pm local time (GMT +2).