It was a good day of practice in France for Aleix Espargaró who finished the first two practice sessions in eighth place. The time of 1’32.132 places him solidly in the top ten, despite a crash a few minutes from the end of FP2 that kept him from improving even further. In any case, there was a clear step forward compared to the morning that places him among the best while everyone waits to see if the weather, always cantankerous in North-eastern France, will let the riders improve on their times in the Saturday morning session.

Andrea Iannone tackled his first day of practice with the unpleasant company of pain in his left foot due to the accident which forced him to miss the last GP in Jerez. Andrea, also busy dialling in his RS-GP, improved his times by almost one second between the first and second session, finishing 19th at 1’33.141. It seems that he and his team are moving in the right direction, especially in the braking phase, and they will continue working in this direction tomorrow for the qualifiers.