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Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez cruised to another victory at the MotoGP Grand Prix of France, which saw the majority of his race and championship contenders disintegrate one by one—quite literally. Alma Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci finished a valiant second, with none other than Valentino Rossi right behind him in third.
The French Grand Prix at Le Mans got off to an exciting start thanks to Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo, who launched out of his grid spot like a space rocket as soon as the lights went off. The Spaniard blasted from sixth to first place in a matter of seconds, leaving pole-sitter Zarco and even Marquez dumbfounded with his ballistic start.
Lorenzo managed to stay ahead of Zarco during the early stages of the race, just like Zarco managed to stay ahead of the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian rider, who recently signed a two-year contract extension with Ducati, had enough pace to challenge for the win—at least until he crashed out of it by making a silly mistake, that is. This allowed Marquez, who had fallen back to fifth place, to slowly make up ground get into contention for the race win.
Things were once again made easy for Marquez when home hero Zarco, much like Dovizioso, lost the front end of his Yamaha and went down hard, quickly promoting Marquez to third place. It was at that point that Lorenzo’s medium tires couldn’t keep up the pace any longer, and eventually began falling back down the order. The world champion eventually finished the race in sixth place.
All along, Marquez, Petrucci, and “The Doctor” were greatly benefited by the attrition at the front, and they found themselves separated from the pack by quite a margin. At the end of the day, it was an unexpected (sort of) podium in France, with a Spaniard being the meat in an Italian sandwich.
The MotoGP circus will now pack its bags and head to legendary Mugello, where a multitude of fans will welcome their lord and savior Valentino Rossi with open arms and cheerful hearts.
