Summary of qualifying and results for Moto3:

Tito Rabat has finally deposed Scott Redding from the top of the Moto2 timesheets, setting the fastest time in the final session of free practice at Le Mans. The Pons Tuenti HP 40 rider put in a late charge to sit at the top of the standings, with Redding closing in at the end of the session.

Redding ended the morning in second, just under three hundredths off the pace of the Spanish championship leader, after making life difficult for himself by crashing early in the session. He was one of several to go down - others included Thomas Luthi, Sandro Cortese and Jordi Torres - but was unhurt in the incident, going back out to better the times he had set before the off.

Nico Terol took third place, a tenth behind Redding, and just ahead of Takaaki Nakagami and Pol Espargaro, places three to five separated by just twenty two thousandths of a second.

Results:

Scintillating Spanish rookie Marc Marquez finished FP3 half a second quicker than the rest of the MotoGP field. The Repsol Honda rider's stunning lap time of 1:33.600 was close to the pole position time of last years French grand prix. Jorge Lorenzo finished in second place followed by the third of the championship contenders Dani Pedrosa. Ducati continued their impressive showing for the weekend thus far with Nicky Hayden finishing the session in fourth ahead of Cal Crutchlow and his Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso. An impressive Bradley Smith, Alvaro Bautista, Valentino Rossi and Stefan Bradl rounded out the top ten. 

An initially cool track saw the likes of Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi and Stefan Bradl fail to improve on their fastest lap times from Friday, while Alvaro Bautista suffered a heavy crash on the approach to the Dunlop chicane with six minutes to go in the session, Hector Barbera had a near identical spill, both riders were able to walk away. 

Results:

A cold, damp track and bright sunshine greeted the Moto3 riders for their third practice session, in which young German charger Jonas Folger topped the time sheets. Maverick Vinales finished second, a tenth behind and some six tenths off yesterdays fastest time set by Spaniard Alex Rins, who ended FP3 in third place. Mahindra rider Miguel Oliveira finished in fourth while Niccolo Antonelli rounded out the top five. 

The session was marred no less than eight crashes for the likes of Romano Fenati, Jakub Kornfeil, Niklas Ajo, Florian Alt, Matteo Ferrari, Brad Binder, Alessandro Tonnuci and Luis Salom. Jakub Kornfeil initially limped away from his crash but was eventually stretchered from the scene. The heaviest crash was for championship contender Salom, who ran wide at the final corner onto some damp articificial turf and highsided, consequently careering into an airfence at high pace. He was attended to by circuit medical staff and looked to be in some discomfort. 

Efren Vazquez, who crashed heavily yesterday did not take part in the session and is believed to be undergoing collarbone surgery today in Barcelona. He hopes to return in time for Mugello in two weeks, but time could be tight.

Results:

So far, so good. That seems to be the story from the first day of practice at Le Mans. A full day of dry weather - except for the last few minutes of FP2 for the Moto3 class, where the rain turned briefly to hail, only to blow out again as quickly as it came - means that everyone had a chance to work on their race set up. With the top four separated by just 0.166 seconds, the top five are within a quarter of a second, and Alvaro Bautista, the man in ninth, is just over seven tenths from the fastest man Dani Pedrosa.

A good day too for the Hondas. Dani Pedrosa was immediately up to speed, as expected. Marc Marquez was also quick in the afternoon, which was less expected. Unlike Jerez and Austin, this was the first time he rode a MotoGP machine at Le Mans, and getting used to hauling a 260 hp, 160kg bike around the tight layout of the French track is a different proposition to riding a Moto2 bike with half the horsepower here. He took a morning to get used to the track, asked for a few changes to the base set up inherited from Casey Stoner, and then went and blitzed to second in the afternoon, 0.134 seconds off his teammate.

More important than Marquez' speed is his consistency, however. In the afternoon, he posted seven laps of 1'34, which looks to be the pace to expect for a dry race. Only two men did more, Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo having posted nine laps at that pace, with both men also consistently a tenth or two quicker than the Spanish rookie.

Press releases from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone after the first day of practice at Le Mans:

Press releases from the Moto2 and Moto3 teams after the first day of practice at Le Mans:

Scott Redding continues to dominate the Moto2 class at Le Mans, comfortably topping the second session of free practice in the afternoon. The young Englishman took the lead early in the session, then extended it to nearly three quarters of a second, before spending the rest of the session lapping faster than anyone else on track.

The sole exception was the man in second place, Thomas Luthi. The Interwetten rider chipped away at Redding's time, ending the session just under four tenths behind the Englishman. Luthi just pipped Julian Simon to second, finishing six thousandths ahead of the Spaniard, while Takaaki Nakagami ended FP2 in fourth. It was a tough session for Pol Espargaro, the Pons Tuenti HP 40 rider managing only the ninth fastest time, though the gap between ninth and  fourth is small, less than two tenths of a second. Tito Rabat, championship leader and fourth fastest in the morning, ended the afternoon session in fourteenth.

Results:

Dani Pedrosa has maintained his spot at the top of the timesheets at Le Mans, carefully controlling the second session of free practice for the MotoGP class at the French circuit. The Repsol Honda man took over the top spot with two thirds of the session gone, and kept pushing to cut his lap times and extend his lead.

Teammate Marc Marquez took second spot, just pipping Valentino Rossi and forcing the Italian down into third by a few thousandths of a second. Rossi held off his Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo by three hundredths, finishing ahead of Lorenzo for the first time this year in a session during a race weekend. Stefan Bradl set the fifth fastest time, a tenths slower than Lorenzo, and a couple of tenths ahead of Cal Crutchlow in 6th.

The two Ducatis ended in seventh and eighth, both just over half a second behind Pedrosa, the Ducati looking more competitive here than at any other track so far this year. Alvaro Baustista took 9th spot, and Aleix Espargaro ended the session in 10th and best CRT machine, just over a second slower than Pedrosa.

Alex Rins ended an incident-packed FP2 session for the Moto3 class on top of the timesheets, in a session cut short by the weather. The Estrella Galicia rider just edged ahead of Mapfre Aspar's Jonas Folger, while Luis Salom took third spot half a second behind Rins, and just ahead of Maverick Viñales. British rider Danny Webb ended in fifth, ahead of Niklas Ajo and Webb's Ambrogio teammate, Brad Binder.

A change in the weather thwarted Viñales' forward progress. The Red Bull KTM rider had fallen on his out lap, taking his time to get going again once he had returned to the pits. Spots of rain started falling shortly after the halfway mark, becoming more serious with some five minutes or so left, sending everyone back into the pits. A number of riders crashed during the session, though most of them during the dry first part, rather than due to the rain, with Efren Vazquez coming off worst, being taken to the Medical Center with a suspected fractured collar bone.

Results:

Scott Redding has ended the first session of free practice for the Moto2 class at Le Mans firmly in charge of proceedings. The Marc VDS Racing rider seized control in the first fifteen minutes of the session, and kept the lead all the way to the end.

Redding was challenged by his main title rival Pol Espargaro, but the Pons Tuenti HP 40 rider stranded a tenth off Redding's time. Tom Luthi grabbed third spot, the Swiss rider now starting to recover from the horrific arm and shoulder injury he suffered during preseason testing, while Jerez winner Tito Rabat ended the session in fourth, just under half a second off the time of Redding. Two more Spaniards grabbed fifth and sixth, Nico Terol finishing ahead of Julian Simon.

Results:

Dani Pedrosa has topped the timesheets in the first session of free practice for the MotoGP class at Le Mans. The Repsol Honda man was strong throughout practice, and held off a late challenge from Jorge Lorenzo to take first blood in France. Lorenzo was not far off, however: on his final lap, he got to within four hundredths of Pedrosa's time, setting the scene for a very close weekend.

Valentino Rossi also had a strong start, taking third spot behind his Yamaha Factory teammate, three tenths off the time of Pedrosa and ahead of a pair of Ducatis, Nicky Hayden grabbing fourth while Andrea Dovizioso secured fifth. Cal Crutchlow ended the session in sixth place, ahead of Marc Marquez, who is still learning his way around the track on a MotoGP bike. The two satellite Honda riders follow in eighth and ninth, Alvaro Bautista a couple of tenths quicker than Stefan Bradl, while Hector Barbera made his way into the top ten to grab the final spot in the provisional line up for QP2.

Maverick Viñales has set out his statement of intent, topping the first session of free practice for the Moto3 class with a late charge. The Spaniard deposed both Alex Rins and Jonas Folger, after Folger had controlled the second half of practice. The session got underway with a few spots of rain, but, that soon cleared up and temperatures rose dramatically towards the end of practice, meaning times dropped.

Results:

Where do you draw the line? That's the central question in the paddock at Le Mans. The last-corner incident at Jerez is still front and foremost in many riders' minds, though perhaps none more so than Jorge Lorenzo's. Jorge Lorenzo still believes that Marc Marquez should be penalized for the move he made at Jerez, while the rest of the world remains to be convinced.

The subject came up at a rider briefing held by Race Direction at Le Mans, after all of the riders had arrived at the track, but before the press conference was due to begin. The briefing had been convened to discuss other issues - what to do when races are red flagged, behavior on the grid, the procedure for restarts, and a host of other complicated but important details surrounding safety. The briefing was clearly needed, as Marc VDS rookie Livio Loi's post red flag crash at Jerez made clear, the youngster's lack of experience causing him problems.

It was inevitable that the subject of the clash between Marquez and Lorenzo would come up at a meeting such as this, and, depending on whose account you believe, it was inevitable that tempers would be frayed. Lorenzo was described on GPOne as being 'furious' with Race Direction over their refusal to penalize Marquez for his pass at Jerez, though in the press conference, Lorenzo played that report down. He stood by his assertion that Race Direction needed to penalize Marquez, and that he had left the meeting early because "I thought it was over, the briefing, and I leave. Someone has to leave first, so I was the first one to leave."

Three races into the 2013 MotoGP season, and the Yamaha Factory Racing team have been forced to tear up the script they had written for themselves after preseason testing. Their original goals were for Jorge Lorenzo to win as often as possible in the early part of the season, building a lead at the tracks at which Yamaha is supposed to be strong, then defend that lead in the second half of the year. Valentino Rossi, meanwhile, was to finish adapting to the Yamaha once again and get on the podium ahead of the Hondas as much as possible, to help build out Lorenzo's lead in the championship.

The plan worked perfectly at Qatar. Lorenzo was untouchable in the race, and won easily. Rossi showed he still had it by getting on the podium and taking second, while the first Honda was Marc Marquez in third. This worked out even better than expected, as although Marquez is clearly an exceptional talent, the real title threat, Yamaha believed, would come from Dani Pedrosa.

Race two, at Austin in Texas, went a little better and a little worse than anticipated. That Marquez would win there had been expected, after all, the Repsol Honda rookie had been quickest at the test. But Marquez' advantage over Lorenzo - and especially the gap from Pedrosa to Lorenzo - was much smaller than they had feared, putting Lorenzo within striking distance of the Repsol Hondas. For Valentino Rossi, on the other hand, things did not go so well, the Italian never feeling comfortable on the bike, and finishing behind two satellite riders, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow and the LCR Honda of Stefan Bradl.

Race three is where the plan started going horribly wrong. The Yamaha men arrived in Jerez supremely confident, after having dominated preseason testing there. Jerez was the start of a run of Yamaha tracks, where Lorenzo and Rossi - and maybe even Cal Crutchlow - would really start to shine, and put some clear blue water between themselves and the Repsol Hondas. It did not work out that way: the Yamahas struggled against the mighty Hondas, and Dani Pedrosa took a very easy victory. Adding insult to injury, Marc Marquez bumped Jorge Lorenzo out of second place, robbing the Yamaha man of the lead in the championship, and putting both Repsol Hondas ahead.

And now MotoGP heads to Le Mans, yet another track that is supposed to favor the Yamahas. Given Jorge Lorenzo's utterly dominant win in the soaking rain at the French circuit in 2012, it is easy to think that the Yamahas should have an easy time of it here. The danger is that riders, teams and fans follow the comfortable assumption that Le Mans is a Yamaha track, disregarding recent history there.