For the second year in succession, the field was presented with a wet
track for the start of the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France. All
competitors duly elected to fit the Soft compound wet weather tyres for
both front and rear wheels, although this resulted in an extremely
difficult final handful of laps as the tarmac dried out.
Pedrosa’s ride to a first victory at Le Mans in the premier class was a
calculated but exciting one. Having crashed in qualifying, he stayed
out of trouble at the start and passed Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge
Lorenzo. The Honda rider then caught Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso, who
had fought into the lead from a front row start and continually
re-passed Pedrosa whenever the latter made a mistake. The final swapping
of places came at half distance.
The weekend has been a memorable one for Crutchlow. On Saturday the
Englishman sustained a fracture to the top of his shin bone, causing
immense pain in the knee, but from fourth on the grid he made the most
of the mixed conditions and stormed passed old teammate Dovizioso in the
closing stages. The Ducati rider led for a chunk of the race and
ultimately just missed out on a rostrum result as Marquez - championship
leader heading into the day - fought back from a poor getaway and a
selection of off-track moments. He therefore maintains his 100% podium
finish record for 2013.
Nicky Hayden confirmed Ducati’s strongest day of the campaign to date
by finishing fifth from GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, but
it was a somewhat disastrous afternoon for Yamaha Factory Racing.
Lorenzo struggled to make an impression and slid down the order to
seventh, whereas Valentino Rossi - who had previously battled with his
teammate - fell while under pressure from Hayden. The Italian recovered
to 12th behind Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone, whose temporary teammate Michele Pirro rose to eighth ahead of Tech 3’s Bradley Smith.
Aleix Espargaro again celebrated the top CRT spot in 13th,
although the Power Electronics Aspar rider had to fight past Came
IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci and took advantage of a crash for
teammate and local favourite Randy de Puniet. Bryan Staring (GO&FUN
Honda Gresini), Claudio Corti (NGM Mobile Forward Racing), Lukas Pesek
(Came IodaRacing Project) and Yonny Hernandez (PBM) also all retired but
no rider suffered injury.
Pedrosa’s fourth win in France across the three classes makes him the
championship leader, as the 2012 runner-up is now up to 83 points and
six ahead of teammate Marquez. Honda leads the Constructors’
Championship from Yamaha by 14 points, with Repsol Honda Team now 47
ahead of Yamaha Factory Racing for Teams’ honours. The battle will
continue at Mugello in Italy on 2nd June.