Jorge Martin had a perfect afternoon on the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans. During the sprint race of the French Grand Prix, the Spaniard from Pramac-Ducati improved his pole position to transform it into a controlled victory. He took the opportunity to take the lead in the Drivers’ Championship since his main competitor, the double reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), had to retire after just two laps. The Italian had a catastrophic start marked by two kicks of his bike before completely missing braking a little further on then returning to the pits for good.
Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati), who made a great start, climbed to the second step of the podium. The Spaniard, who started 13th, had already moved up to 4th place at the end of the first lap. He then knew how to put pressure on Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), who made a mistake four laps from the end while he was second.
Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) took the opportunity to take third place, taking advantage of the misfortune of his teammate Aleix Espargaro (5th at the finish) who was the author of an early start and had to achieve two “long lapses” to atone for his fault.
Enea Bastianini (Ducati) only finished at the foot of the podium but he had a good performance in the Championship as he overtook Bagnaia for second place behind Martin. The latter has 104 points compared to 76 for Bastianini and 75 for Bagnaia. Note the good race of rookie Pedro Acosta (KTM), sixth and still fourth in the Championship.
Despite the large and enthusiastic crowd at Le Mans, the two French drivers had rather anonymous races. Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) occupied eighth place at the start of the race before quickly falling to 13th then moving up at the end of the race to finish 10th. Johann Zarco (Honda LCR) is 13th.
