Seventy-one years ago, a Frenchman named Pierre Monneret, rode to victory in the French Motorcycle Grand Prix. Since that day, very few French riders have got close enough to even sniff at such an achievement.
That all changed on Sunday when Johann Zarco sailed across the finish line 20-seconds ahead of Marc Marquez, and 26-seconds ahead of rookie Fermin Aldeguer – and how that happened is tale of determination, talent, splashing in a waterfall of Long-Lap Penalties and crashes, and overseen by an incandescent level of chaos.
That had to have been the most confusing MotoGP race I have ever watched. If it wasn’t for the five super-computers Dorna uses to communicate with the next-level transponders on the bikes, no-one would have had any idea of what was happening. The commentators, like us, could only see what the screens were showing them – and little of that made any sense.
The weekend began in a pretty standard 2025 way. Marc Marquez and his brother came one-two in Saturday’s Sprint race. Sure, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo teased the massive crowd (a record attendance for any MotoGP of 311,797 over the weekend) by setting a record lap-time, starting on pole, and even leading briefly, but Marc will Marc, won’t he? Fabulous battled with him some, but it was not to be. And French hopes were dashed by a distinct lack of “Magnifique!” on the part of Fabulous.
So, everyone was kinda set to see the same thing happen on Sunday. The infamous Le Mans campsite thundered, burned, and rev-bounced all night, as the crowd reconciled itself to another Spanish whitewash on Sunday.
Rain was being promised. But so what? It’s common knowledge Fabulous is not a great wet-weather rider, while Marc seems to have no issues being fast in the water. No-one had any clue how well his brother would go in the wet, since no-one can still quite workout how come he’s suddenly so fast in the dry.
Rain is no big deal, right? Bung on some wets and out you go. Well, not always. Let me try and explain what happened. I was gonna go with: “It kinda rained, half of them went mad, everyone was confused, people were waving flags, Race Control was worshipping Satan, lots of them crashed, most of them rejoined and crashed again, half of them got two Long Lap Penalties, some got four Long Lap Penalties, Savadori was second at one stage, then Zarco beat Mark by 20-seconds.”
Which is pretty much what happened. But if you want the extended version, read on…
The race was only declared Wet while they were sitting on the grid on slicks. So, they all did the warm-up lap, and they all came back into the pits to get wet tyres. The start was thus red-flagged, because Race Control deemed there would be too many riders starting from pit lane. With me thus far?
Right, so then out they go again, but because it had sort of stopped raining on the sighting lap, eleven of them decided to go back into the pits and switch back to slicks – and thus did they all incur a Double Long-Lap Penalty. The rest of them gridded up on various-compound wet tyres, the race length was reduced by a lap, and away they went.
Chaos ensued almost immediately. Half the field had to complete their penalties. Which was the same half that now also wanted to get a bike with wet tyres. So that started happening. A whole bunch of them crashed, including Pecco, Binder, Fabulous, and Mir, and I truly had no idea what was going on for the first maybe eight or so laps. At one stage, Fermin was leading the race and Savadori was second – and I was wondering if I’d had one beer too many.
Pecco’s crash sent Zarco riding into the gravel on Turn One as he tried to avoid getting caught up with the carnage. I think it was Bezzecchi who tried to fit his bike under Pecco’s, which sent Pecco into Brad, then put them both in the gravel, and Bez into a Long-Lap Penalty, which was to be his third. This was still better than the Beast, who copped four LLPs.
But then things started to sort themselves out and it was Johann Zarco who was 5.6-seconds out in front. He had started on wets, incurred no penalties, and was just hammering out lap-times that were second quicker than anyone else’s.
Oliveira, who was having his first race back after spending the first part of the season re-growing his bones, and had been up the back for most of the weekend, found himself in second, ahead of Marc Marquez.
Some riders who’d crashed rejoined, then crashed again – and yes, I am looking at you Alex Marquez. When he crashed the first time, he was in third. He rejoined the field in sixth, just ahead of Taka Nakagami (back for one race), which gives you a clue as to how spread out they all were.
Basically, the entire field was strung out over the racetrack, and it was only thanks to the transponders were we able to understand what was happening. Zarco actually lapped riders like Bezzechi and the Beast.
The last five laps were rather hectic. Zarco was uncatchable and increasing his lead over Marc by almost a second a lap. The French were roaring and howling with joy like before Napoleon went to Russia. Zarco’s team boss, Lucio Cecchinello, was pacing the pits, maybe searching for Valium, and clearly praying Zarco would not crash out of this incredible lead.
Behind him, Marc was happy to just finish second. Zarco was no threat to the championship, so there was no need for Marc to try. Oliveira had a savage high-side out of third, while rookie Aldegeur was really putting the hurt into Maverick Vinales by taking fifth off him.
Pedro Acosta was now the rider in third, but Fermin was not to be denied. For a rookie who had never ridden a MotoGP bike in the wet, he certainly had no great issue hunting down and passing everyone. A few more laps and we would have seen what answer Marc might have had for Fermin.
Only 16 riders finished the race, with Pecco stone last and out of the points.
The combined results of the weekend, saw Marc increase his lead. He sits on 171 points, with his brother, despite Sunday’s DNF, on 149 in second. Pecco is languishing on 120. Certainly not an insurmountable gap this early in the season, but given how Marc is performing…well, you can draw your own conclusions.
The circus heads to Silverstone in two weeks, and it, like Le Mans, is a circuit that never fails to surprise.
