MotoGP France: Lorenzo Takes Championship Lead In Le Mans

The crash-filled MotoGP France was a double victory for Yamaha and a triumph for Suzuki.

MotoGP France Race Report

Jorge Lorenzo was sheer brilliance this weekend – he lead the MotoGP France from pole to pole, securing his second win of the season in style. Last year’s champion pulled away from the starting line and increased his lead to almost 10 seconds by the time the chequered flag came out, riding an almost perfect race.

All that way behind him was Valentino Rossi in second, with the unlikely hero Maverick Vinales completing the podium in third.

What does this mean for the championship? Well, Lorenzo is now top dog, taking the lead from Marquez. He shouldn’t count his chickens yet, though: the season has only just begun and there are a mere 12 points separating the three former champions.

Jorge acknowledged the mixture of luck and skill that took him to the top: “I‘m very happy with this victory, because everything has been almost perfect. In the race I knew Marquez had the chance to fight for the victory with me…he would have been second or third and that would have meant he would still have kept his first position in the championship, but he crashed.”

Valentino Rossi rode a solid race, advancing slowly and holding off Marc Marquez for some thrilling overtakes. With his rival-in-chief crashing out on lap 18 (more on that later), Rossi was also carried to the podium by a mixture of luck and skill.

Suzuki resurrected!

The Espargaro brothers did well in the MotoGP France. Pol beat his brother and took the honour of being the top satellite rider in 5th, leaving Aleix’s factory Suzuki in 6th.

Suzuki weren’t focusing on Aleix, though – all eyes were on the sensational Maverick Vinales. The young Spaniard gifted Suzuki their first podium since 2008, achieving third place behind racing giants Lorenzo and Rossi. He was in excellent company to take his first podium in the premier class.

This might not be the last time we see Vinales and Rossi together… After the MotoGP France, speculation has been flying around about Maverick’s team choice for 2017. Lorenzo will leave a big gap in the Yamaha team, is Vinales ready to fill it? At just 21, this young racer is an incredibly exciting prospect.

Suzuki will, of course, want to keep this bright young rider after a performance like that. By Mugello on 22nd May, we hope that Vinales will have made his decision. Then we can see where his loyalties lie, and how high his ambitions go!

Vinales had a lot to celebrate, whatever the future holds: “It is such a special feeling to be on the podium, we did an incredible job…Today when I started I just tried to concentrate and overtake the riders in front of me. Finally Marc and Dovi had bad luck but I was riding well and at about the same pace as Valentino so I was happy.”

A bad day for the British… and for Ducati!

The British riders were completely obliterated across the channel, with all three of our home-grown stars crashing out of the race. It was a sad spectacle for British fans.

Scott Redding retired early after completing only 5 laps. The second casualty was Cal ‘Crash’ Crutchlow (not his official nickname), who has had the worst luck of any rider in the paddock. He suffered his fourth crash of the season on lap 7, and all we could do was hope that his losing streak doesn’t last too much longer!

In a particularly cruel twist of fate, Bradley Smith also fell foul of the volatile French track, even though this is his team’s home tarmac. He crashed out with only 9 laps to go, while riding a promising race. Bad luck, Bradley.

As he is Northern Irish, we’ll just have to claim Eugene Laverty for Britain in this round, as he was one of only 13 riders who actually finished the race. He achieved 11th place and 5 championship points.

Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso slid off the track at exactly the same moment on lap 18, in a very weird crash with no contact at all. Marquez doggedly carried on with half a front fairing, to take 13th place and salvage 3 championship points.

We were back to the old Marquez in France, seeing him push hard and aggressively to gain points. He explained his strategy: “It was a pity about the crash today….I could have opted for a more conservative race, but here you can end up far back if you do that, so today I had to take risks.”

As for Desmo Dovi, it was yet another disaster for Ducati as he was forced to retire for the 3rd time. This is, unfortunately, his 4th crash or mishap in as many races.

It was not Ducati’s weekend, as Iannone had crashed out earlier on lap seven. There’s some truth in his nickname ‘The Maniac’, we think, after seeing how hard he pushed – only to overdo it and end up with a DNF.

The next round of MotoGP 2016 will be held in Mugello, on the 22nd of May.

We will see you back here on the blog with next time with our MotoGP race report. If youve enjoyed these ramblings and have something of your own to say, leave a comment below – we’d love to hear your thoughts on how this season’s shaping up. In the long wait for Mugello, why not check out our Racing News section of the blog for all this season’s MotoGP, BSB and Taz Taylor race reports.

Photos courtesy of Motogp.com.