In by far the worst conditions seen all
season, it was Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa who got off to one of
his trademark starts followed by teammate Casey Stoner. Their lead was
short lived, as Lorenzo charged past the pair and instantly pulled out a
gap. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow also made a good start in
fourth, followed by a surging Rossi in fifth.
It was heartache for the French fans from the beginning as Power
Electronics Aspar’s local rider Randy de Puniet dropped his bike on the
grid, and had to head out on his spare one. Near the front, Rossi soon
moved past Crutchlow to take fourth, with Dovizioso following suit
almost instantly. Avintia Blusens’ Iván Silva’s race was ended early as
he fell foul of the wet conditions, crashing out of the race in the
opening stages.
With Lorenzo building a three second lead, Stoner pushed past Pedrosa
to chase down his championship rival. Pedrosa seemed to struggling on
the wet surface, with Rossi capitalising on this to take third with 21
laps left. The Tech 3 pair passed Pedrosa even further down the order as
they looked to hunt down Rossi.
Near the back, Lorenzo’s teammate Ben Spies was struggling and had a
wobble at the end of turn two, shortly after which he briefly entered
the pits. Cardion AB Racing’s Karel Abraham retired with 17 laps to go,
with NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s replacement rider Chris Vermeulen also
having to come in for a helmet change.
As Lorenzo was maintaining his lead around the three second mark
ahead of Stoner, it was the ensuing tussle for third between Crutchlow,
Dovizioso and Rossi that was providing some breath-taking overtaking in
horrific conditions. Ten laps before the end it was misery for Crutchlow
as he lost the front in the first chicane, leaving the two Italians to
fight it out for the final podium spot, with Rossi taking third just two
corners later. The Brit managed to restart his bike and re-join in
eighth. Meanwhile, Lorenzo had extended his lead to six seconds at the
front with Stoner a further four seconds ahead of Rossi.
With five laps to go Stoner was held up slightly by Avintia’s Yonny
Hernandez, allowing Rossi to get to within half a second of the
Australian world champion. Two laps later Dovizioso crashed out of
fourth tying to stick with the pair, while down the field Came
IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci crashed out of 11th.
The last three laps gave MotoGP fans a racing delight, as old
adversaries Stoner and Rossi swapped positions throughout. It was
however Rossi who looked back to his old self as he passed Stoner in the
first chicane on the last lap, after which he pulled out a lead big
enough to secure second. This is the highest result both Rossi and the
Ducati team have had in the past two season.
It was however Lorenzo who took the chequered flag to take an eight
point lead at the top of the championship ahead of Stoner, who came home
in third. Pedrosa managed fourth, while LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl
recorded his best ever result in fifth, ahead or Rossi’s teammate Nicky
Hayden. Dovizioso, who managed to re-join after crashing finished
seventh ahead of his teammate Crutchlow, while Pramac Racing’s Héctor
Barberá and San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista completed the top
ten. Paul Bird Motorsport’s James Ellison put in a great performance to
finish as top CRT in 11th. De Puniet suffered yet more misery in front
of his home crowd as he crashed on his spare bike towards the end.
Pons 40 HP Tuenti’s Pol Espargaró got the
best start as he stormed into the lead with Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott
Redding. The first chicane proved difficult as Came IodaRacing
Project’s Simone Corsi was bucked off his bike, with the trio of NGM
Mobile Forward Racing’s Yuki Takahashi, GP Team Switzerland’s Randy
Krummenacher and S/Master Speed Up’s Mike Di Meglio taking each other
out a few corners later.
Espargaró was trying to pull away at the front, but Lüthi and Redding
were closely on his heels, with Tech 3 Racing’s Bradley Smith and
Federal Oil Gresini Moto2’s Gino Rea in tow. Takahashi’s teammate Alex
de Angelis survived a scare as he slid back onto the track after coming
off his bike, with the Moto2™ pack doing tremendously well to avoid the
rider.
Just as Rea looked to making headway, JiR Moto2’s Johann Zarco went
up the inside, clipping the Brit’s front wheel, and sending him into the
gravel, putting an end to his first race on the new Suter chassis.
Meanwhile, Italtrans Racing Team’s Claudio Corti joined the front five,
with Speed Master compatriot Andrea Iannone surging up the field as
well.
With 17 laps to go, Espargaró ran wide handing the lead to Lüthi and
dropping into ninth in the process. Smith also had a run off track, but
managed to re-join in 14th. Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol’s Marc Márquez,
who did not have a terrific start, was fighting his way up to the front
five, as he tussled with rain-specialist Zarco.
Drama followed shortly after as the championship leader went down
after loosing control of his bike, and being unable to re-join. This
left Zarco to challenge for a podium, and the Frenchman soon pushed past
Redding into second, followed by Corti, putting in a bold move on the
Brit. With 13 laps to go Lüthi had pulled out a lead of just over three
seconds.
Arguiñano Racing Team’s Ricard Cardus suffered a heavy high-side half
way through the race, yet fortunately walked away unscathed. Further
down the field, Espargaró was struggling to make up positions, as he was
overtaken in eighth place by QMMF Racing Team’s Ant West, who was
showing his usual prowess in the rain.
As the field settled down with 10 laps to go, the front runners
started to spread out slightly as Zarco was slowly chipping away at
Lüthi’s lead, dropping off Corti in the process. This left Redding and
Iannone to battle it out for fourth. Di Meglio, who had re-joined the
race after his early crash, lost control of his bike once again with 9
laps to go, putting an end to his race. He was followed shortly by
Corti’s teammate Takaaki Nakagami who had a high-speed crash heading
into the back chicane.
With six laps left, Zarco had cut the lead to the Swiss leader to
under a second, whilst West went past Blusens Avintia’s Julián Simón
into sixth. West’s teammate Elena Rosell was not faring as well as the
Australian, as she crashed out of the race.
French heartache soon followed as Zarco lost the back-end of his bike
as he was pushing hard in the wet, handing second place to Corti and
third to Redding.
The main tussle in the pack was for sixth place with Redding’s teammate
Kallio, West, Espargaró, Simón and Smith swapping positions in the final
few laps. The unpredictability of the race was to continue until the
final corner as Smith dropped his bike in the final turn, and Simón
having to push his bike across the finish line.
It was however Lüthi who put in a stunning ride to take the
chequered flag ahead of Corti, who recorded his first ever podium, and
Redding, recording his first podium for 22 races. Rounding out the top
ten were Iannone, Kallio, Espargaró, West, Kiefer Racing’s Max
Neukirchner, Thai Honda Gresini’s Ratthapark Wilairot as well as Smith,
who managed to salvage a few points.
MotoGP3
Rossi takes emphatic first win in dramatic Le Mans race
At an extremely wet Monster Energy Grand Prix de France in Le
Mans it was Frenchman Louis Rossi who kept his nerve to take his first
ever win in treacherous conditions in front of his home crowd.
In a race that started in very wet
conditions, it was Blusens Avintia’s Maverick Viñales who got away best,
with AirAsia-SIC-Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin also making a tremendous
start from 10th into second. JHK T-Shirt Laglisse’s Efrén Vázquez, who
was second on the grid, suffered mechanical issues on the out-lap and
was unable to start the race.
There were crashes early on as RW Racing GP’s Brad Binder took out TT
Motion Events Racing’s Niklas Ajo, which was followed up shortly after
with IodaRacing Project’s Jonas Folger and local rider, Caretta
Technology’s Alexis Masbou, sliding off into the gravel.
Back at the front it was Bankia Aspar Team’s Héctor Faubel and RW
Racing GP’s Luis Salom that went into the lead, as Viñales dropped off
the pace slightly. However the conditions continued to take their toll,
as Team Italia FMI’s Romano Fenati suffered a similar fate to last race
as he also lost control of his bike, putting an end to his first French
race. Technomag-CIP-TSR’s Kenta Fujii repeated his morning warm-up
crash, rounding out a less than ideal day for the Japanese rider.
With 18 laps to go, a five-some of Faubel, Salom,
Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Jakub Kornfeil, Estrella Galicia 0,0’s
Miguel Oliveira and Viñales were involved in an entertaining battle for
podium positions. In the following laps, further casualties of the
weather were Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Danny Kent, Mahindra Racing’s Danny
Webb, Ambrogio Next Racing’s Simone Grotzkyj and Caretta Technology’s
Jack Miller, while Fenati’s teammate Alessandro Tonucci had to retire to
the pits with a mechanical problem.
As Viñales was pushing to challenge Faubel and Oliveira for the lead
he had a scare as he was almost bucked off his bike, whilst Salom was
slowly dropping off the pace after Racing Team Germany’s Rossi went past
him into fifth.
With 11 laps to go there was drama at the front as Faubel crashed out
of first position, with Kornfeil crashing out of third a few seconds
later, handing the first three places to Oliveira, Viñales and Rossi.
Half a lap later, Salom followed suit as he slid off into the gravel in
ever worsening conditions.
As a thrilling fight for fourth ensued between Red Bull KTM Ajo’s
Sandro Cortese and Khairuddin, there was further drama at the front as
the surging Oliveira crashed out of the lead, handing the reigns to
Viñales, who was being hunted down by Rossi.
This lasted for a lap only, as Viñales threw himself of his bike in
the final corner, followed shortly by Khairuddin. The Malaysian managed
to keep his bike going, while the race was over for the Spaniard. This
left Frenchman Rossi in the lead by over 20 seconds, much to the delight
of the home crowd, with Cortese and Bankia Aspar’s Alberto Moncayo in
podium positions.
Three laps before the end Cortese lost the front going into the first
chicane, yet managed to keep the bike going to re-join in sixth, with
Oliveira’s teammate Alex Rins slipping into third with San Carlo Gresini
Moto3’s Niccolo Antonelli on his tail.
In the end it was Rossi who made the Le Mans grandstands cheer with
delight as he took his first ever victory by a margin of 28 seconds in
front of Moncayo and Rins, taking his first ever podium. Antonelli could
not quite challenge for the podium finishing fourth, in front of Red
Bull KTM Ajo duo of Arthur Sissis and Cortese and Moto FGR’s Jasper
Iwema. Technomag-CIP-TSR’s Alan Techer made it two Frenchman in the top
ten finishing eighth, with Andalucia JHK Laglisse’s Iván Moreno and
Ambrogio Next Racing’s Giulian Pedone rounding out the top ten.