Moto2 championship leader Francesco Baganaia eased to his first Moto2 pole position, after securing top spot early in qualifying for the French Grand Prix.
Dynavolt Intact GP's Xavi Vierge set the initial pace as the 45-minute qualifying session got underway, the Spaniard hitting the top of the timesheets with a 1:36.390s.
Two minutes later, Bagnaia stormed two tenths of a second clear with a 1:36.188s, which remained unchallenged for much of the session.
Marc VDS rider Alex Marquez threatened to dethrone the Italian on his final effort after posting two fastest sectors in the opening half of the lap.
However, Marquez lost three tenths going through the third sector, and was left stranded at the back of the second row in sixth.
Behind Marquez, Vierge was just a few hundredths outside of Bagnaia's time, but crashed at Turn 9 and remained in second, while Jerez race winner Lorenzo Baldassarri – who was only 15th after FP3 – leaped up to the front row late on in third.
Joan Mir briefly held a place on the front row on the sister Marc VDS bike, but was bumped back to fourth with his 1:36.659s, with FP3 pacesetter Marcel Schrotter brushing off a crash to split the Marc VDS pairing.
Sam Lowes suffered two falls in qualifying, but still managed to put his CGBM Evolution KTM seventh on the grid ahead of Ajo KTM rider Brad Binder.
Simone Corsi put his Tasca Racing bike ninth for his best qualifying result of the season, while Miguel Oliveira completed the top 10 on the second Ajo machine, with Mattia Pasini just missing a place in the top 10 after adding his name to the lengthy list of crashers with an early fall at Turn 3.
