Le Mans MotoGP: Lorenzo dominates crash-filled French GP

Honda’s Marquez and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso both fell simultaneously in a bizarre incident as they turned into the Chemin aux Boeufs chicane while placed third and fourth.

The star of the race was Rossi, who made a good start but was shuffled down to seventh on the opening lap. He battled through to second, but could do nothing about Yamaha teammate Lorenzo, who won by 10s – and takes the points lead from Marquez.

Story of the race

From pole position, Lorenzo rocketed away to lead Dovizioso, Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Andrea Iannone (Ducati). Rossi was up to sixth off the startline behind Marquez, who made a poor start.

Iannone passed Pol, with Marquez following him through, but Pol briefly got him back – until Marquez bullied past him again at Garage Vert.

The recovering Pol delayed Rossi at the following chicane, allowing Bradley Smith and Aleix Espargaro past.

Rossi quickly pushed Smith back behind him, and then overtook Aleix into the Dunlop chicane.

Rossi quickly caught Pol for fifth and passed him into the Dunlop chicane on lap three, but was already 3.3s off Lorenzo’s lead. He then set the fastest lap of the race as he chased down Marquez in fourth.

Near the front, Iannone bullied past his teammate Dovizioso for second, without skittling him down like he had done in Argentina, but the Italian was 1s behind Lorenzo after he did so.

A lap later, however, Iannone crashed out all on his own in the middle of the double-apex Garage Vert – losing the front end, just after he’d taken a couple of tenths out of Lorenzo’s lead.

Instead, Lorenzo was gifted a 2s lead over Dovizioso which he extended with metronomic excellence.

The true battle was for second, as Marquez and Rossi closed in on Dovizioso.

Rossi made his move straight away, lunging past Marquez for third at Garage Vert just before half distance. A lap later, he did likewise to Dovizioso at Le Musee.

Amazing double crash

Amazingly, a few laps later, Dovizioso and Marquez then fell simultaneously into the Chemin aux Boeufs chicane.

Lorenzo had a 5s lead by this point over Rossi, with Vinales up to third. Dani Pedrosa battled up to fourth from 11^th on the grid on the second works Honda, ahead of the Espargaro brothers – Pol ahead of Aleix.

Bradley Smith crashed out of seventh position, promoting comeback kid Danilo Petrucci, despite his damaged right hand, just ahead of Hector Barbera and the Aprilias of Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl.

Cal Crutchlow shunted out of 10^th place, with other fallers including Tito Rabat, Yonny Hernandez and Jack Miller.

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha YZR-M1	43:51.290
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha YZR-M1	+10.654
3	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki GSX-RR	+14.177
4	Dani Pedrosa	Honda RC213V	+18.719
5	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha YZR-M1	+24.931
6	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki GSX-RR	+32.921
7	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati GP15	+38.251
8	Hector Barbera	Ducati GP14	+38.504
9	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia RS-GP	+48.536
10	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia RS-GP	+54.502
11	Eugene Laverty	Ducati GP14	+1:02.677
12	Loris Baz	Ducati GP14	+1:07.658
13	Marc Marquez	Honda RC213V	+1 lap
R	Bradley Smith	Yamaha YZR-M1
R	Jack Miller	Honda RC213V
R	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati GP16
R	Andrea Iannone	Ducati GP16
R	Tito Rabat	Honda RC213V
R	Cal Crutchlow	Honda RC213V
R	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati GP14
R	Scott Redding	Ducati GP15