Francesco Bagnaia on Saturday grabbed pole position for the French MotoGP by breaking the track record set hours earlier.
The Italian completed a lap in 1min 30.45sec to shave a little more than a tenth of a second off the record Frenchman Johann Zarco set in morning practice.
Bagnaia set his fastest lap with Ducati factory team-mate Jack Miller riding in his slipstream. The Australian, who won at Le Mans last year, used the tow to finish 0.69sec behind and grab second on the grid.
Aleix Espargaro, who is second in the standings, seized third on his Aprilia right at the end of qualifying pushing championship leader Fabio Quartararo off the front row.