Setting the pace in FP1, Martin continued that form in the hour-long second session at Le Mans with a new lap record of 1m30.388s.
The championship leader headed Francesco Bagnaia on the factory team Ducati from Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta, while Fabio Quartararo made it through to Q2 in front of his home fans.
Saturday morning’s Q1 qualifying session will see several big names taking part, that list headlined by eight-time world champion Marc Marquez.
After suffering an early crash, Marquez struggled for pace through the rest of the session and ended up 13th and in Q1 for the first time since joining the Gresini Ducati squad.
Enea Bastianini, who is fighting with Marquez to secure the second factory Ducati seat for 2025, also failed to get into Q2 while Brad Binder on the factory KTM will also go through Q1 after two crashes in second practice.
A flurry of session-topping times punctuated the first 10 minutes of this afternoon’s running at a packed Le Mans.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales emerged as the best of that bunch, leading the way with a 1m31.359s.
He set this time just moments after Marquez crashed at Turn 12.
Vinales’ lap stood as the benchmark until Martin popped in a 1m31.305s on his Pramac Ducati with 25 minutes remaining.
Bagnaia would depose him 10 minutes later with a 1m31.235s, before Aleix Espargaro on the sister factory Aprilia edged ahead with a 1m31.113s.
VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio proceeded to blow the field wide open with just under 14 minutes to go with a 1m30.531s that put him over half a second clear.
Martin was the first to challenge this, beating it with a 1m30.531s with just under 10 minutes to go before a final lap of 1m30.388s cemented top spot for the Spaniard.
Bagnaia shadowed him, 0.145s adrift, while Acosta was a further 0.042s behind in third ahead of Vinales and Di Giannantonio.
KTM’s Jack Miller, then 2021 French GP winner, completed the top six from Espargaro, Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli, VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi and Yamaha’s Quartararo.
Bastianini was denied a place in Q2 by 0.010s, while Marc Marquez’s hopes were dashed at Turn 6 on his final flying lap.
A crash for Bastianini with a minute remaining ended the Ducati rider’s chances of getting through to Q2, but also forced Marquez’s current lap to be cancelled.
Getting over the line with a second to spare before the chequered flag, Marquez set the fastest first sector of anyone.
But he ran wide at Turn 6 and had to abort the lap, leaving down in 13th.
Binder’s third crash of the day left him in 17th ahead of Honda’s leading runner Joan Mir.
MotoGP French GP – FP2 results:
