The sun was all shining again on Saturday morning in Le Mans as the lightweight class was the first on track, with Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Jacob Roulstone both aiming for direct Q2 tickets in Practice 2 after their results on Friday. On the team’s turf, Holgado will start from the front row after he qualified in second, missing out on the pole position by 0.011 seconds, while Jacob Roulstone qualified in eleventh, after topping the pre-qualifying stage.

Third after Practice 1 on Friday, Moto3™ championship leader Daniel Holgado headed back on track on his GASGAS bike with the aim to qualify directly for the final qualifying session, which he did as the Spaniard took tenth in the combined practices. While his title rival David Alonso broke the all-time lap record of the Bugatti Circuit with a 1’40.121, the 2023 French Grand Prix winner was one of two riders who did not improve their lap times this morning. His Practice 1 lap in 1’41.056 was enough for him to make it directly to Q2. As the afternoon got much more hotter, lap times were pretty fast, and Dani got super close to Alonso’s lap time record, with a 1’40.125, a lap which had him the provisional pole position, but that was without the Columbian breaking another time the all-time lap record in the final seconds, as he clocked a 1’40.114 to take the pole in France. That means last season’s winner, Holgado, will defend his crown from the first row, in second.

On the other hand, despite being in the top 10 on Friday, Jacob Roulstone was twenty-first at the end of the two practices. The Australian rookie managed to improve his lap time to 1’41.413, but that was a bit short, 0.239 seconds, to make the cut for the final qualifying stage, meaning that the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 had to go through the pre-qualifying at lunch time. After he brilliantly topped Q1, Jacob joined his teammate in the final stage of qualifying. The rookie found himself a bit far off the fastest riders and could not benefit from the best slipstream, but he did pretty well and clocked in a lap in 1'41.092. Jacob will start the Michelin® Grand Prix de France from eleventh, as he looks to score more points for his team’s home race, when lights go out on Sunday at 11:00 (GMT+2), for twenty laps.