Delight for Espargaró but a little pain for Kallio

Pramac Racing will start Sunday’s Monster Energy Grand Prix de France with Aleix Espargaró on tenth position on the grid and Mika Kallio 16th.

Espargaró continued his progress on the Ducati of the satellite team to qualify with a best lap of 1’34.514, and was extremely happy with the result of his efforts which left him 1.106s off pole holder Valentino Rossi.

"I am delighted as I have reduced my best lap time from yesterday by almost a second,” he said. “I also kept the same gap that I had from the leader of the first free practice. I hope to be able to finally repay the confidence that the team has placed in me during this difficult start to the Championship. I have a good bike and the technicians have worked to make my bike perfect for this race. This is the best position I have had on the grid since I’ve been in MotoGP.”

Kallio put on a brave face and rode on with a painful shoulder after crashing in practice earlier in the day, qualifying in 16th. He rose from 17th on the grid in the last round to place seventh at Jerez, and will aiming for a similar recovery on Sunday.

"Fortunately the shoulder is not broken. Despite the pain I really wanted to take part in qualifying and I tried to get the perfect balance for the bike for the race tomorrow,” said the Finn. “Unfortunately, the pain and the time that I lost this morning have only allowed me to take half a second off the time I have achieved in the practice yesterday. To start again from the bottom of the grid is not so nice, but I will give it my best to repay the tremendous work the team have done for me.”