Jorge Lorenzo delivered yet another masterclass in metronomic consistency to take victory in Le Mans. He flew off the line and no one could match his pace as he pulled a half-second gap by the end of the first lap.
There was a lot of drama left in his wake, however. After a steady start, Valentino Rossi fought back to finish in second, ten seconds behind his teammate. Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales scored his first ever MotoGP podium a further three seconds back in third.
Echoing his fortunes from Argentina, Dani Pedrosa comes away with an unexpected fourth from a disastrous weekend. Having started from 11th on the grid, it was due to the misfortunes of his competitors that he walked away with such a creditable result.
Ducati’s woeful season continues. Andrea Iannone fought his way up to second on lap six. He looked as though he could take the fight to Lorenzo with a blistering pace on lap seven, before pushing too hard and crashing. He remounted but later retired, his bike too damaged to continue.
In a bizarre twist, Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez would suffer the exact same front end crash at exactly the same time as they tried to keep up with Rossi. Dovizioso was forced to retire, however, Marquez remounted, and although he eventually finished a lap down, he picks up three valuable points from 13th. As we saw in Valencia last year, even a single point can prove to be vital in deciding a championship, and this year looks likely to be as fiercely contested as 2015.
There were many crashes and retirements. Scott Redding’s engine stopped early in the race forcing him out. Yonny Hernandez retired, and Cal Crutchlow’s season goes from bad to worse with yet another crash, his fourth in the five races so far this year.
Tito Rabat crashed out, as did Iannone, Dovizioso, Jack Miller and Bradley Smith.
Today’s result has a massive impact on the championship standings. Lorenzo takes over at the top of the standings with 90 points. Marquez is in second just five points behind, with Rossi in third a further seven points back.
The championship resumes in Mugello in two weeks’ time on May 22.
