Honda rider Luca Marini led the way in the opening MotoGP session of the French Grand Prix weekend at Le Mans.

The cards were shuffled - as is customary for opening practice - by some riders and not others electing for a mid-session change of rear tyre.

Marini was among those on fresh rubber late on, as was third-placed Pedro Acosta (KTM), 0.028s off.

But the arguable standout of the session was Fabio Di Giananntonio, slotting in between them, 0.054s off first place.

The VR46 Ducati man had finished the session in fourth on the timing screens, but had a lap reinstated afterwards. He never changed tyres during the session - and had led much of it before the late-session flurry of improvements.

Home hero Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) was another to castch the eye, fourth - a quarter of a second off Marini - despite sticking with the same tyres all session like Di Giannantonio.

Trackhouse's Raul Fernandez was the lead Aprilia rider in fifth, propped up by fresh tyres.

It was a relatively quiet session for title hopefuls Marc Marquez (ninth), Marco Bezzecchi (14th) and Jorge Martin (15th), none opting for fresh rubber and Martin mostly notable for losing bits of rear aero during the session.

The top 20 was covered by just over a second, with Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamah) cut seven tenths adrift in 21st and Jonas Folger, the KTM injury stand-in, another 1.5s back in last place.

1 Luca Marini (Honda) 1m30.857s
2 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.054s
3 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.208s
4 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +0.252s
5 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.367s
6 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +0.445s
7 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +0.470s
8 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.503s
9 Marc Marquez (Ducati) +0.531s
10 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.537s
11 Joan Mir (Honda) +0.539s
12 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.591s
13 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +0.655s
14 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +0.675s
15 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +0.676s
16 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +0.729s
17 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +0.731s
18 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.809s
19 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +0.976s
20 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +1.035s
21 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +1.759s
22 Jonas Folger (Tech3 KTM) +3.241s