Le Mans (France) (AFP) - Italian Francesco Bagnaia produced a brilliant lap to edge out Marc Marquez for pole position at the French Grand Prix on Saturday, as MotoGP championship leader Marco Bezzecchi qualified third.

Bagnaia posted a time of one minute and 29.634 seconds to beat his Ducati teammate Marc Marquez by 0.012 secs and secure his first pole since Malaysia last year.

“It’s absolutely fantastic,” said Bagnaia. “This season I’ve been struggling in qualifying, but since the start of the weekend, we’ve been working better and we’ve found something.”

Two-time world champion Bagnaia has endured a tough start to the season, failing to finish two of the four races so far.

Aprilia’s Bezzecchi completed the front row, just another 0.011 secs slower than Marc Marquez.

Bezzecchi’s run of five consecutive MotoGP wins was ended last month by Alex Marquez in Spain.

Reigning champion Marc Marquez has also crashed out twice this campaign and is 44 points behind Bezzecchi in fifth in the riders’ standings.

The 33-year-old, who ended a six-year wait for his seventh MotoGP world title last season, posted a track record in the first qualifying session after missing out on the top 10 in Friday’s practice.

“I didn’t understand why I was so fast in Q1,” he said.

“What’s a shame is that I can’t seem to be consistent. I really need to work on understanding things in the coming weeks to improve and become more consistent.

“Being on the front row is still a great surprise.”

Jorge Martin, who is 11 points behind Bezzecchi in second place in the championship, could only qualify in eighth spot.

The weekend’s racing continues later Saturday with the sprint, before Sunday’s main race.