Dani Pedrosa victorious in rain swept LeMans

Dani Pedrosa braved trecherous condition to win the French Grand Prix in LeMans, France ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez while Factory Yamaha riders Lorenzo and Rossi witnessed a bad bay at office.

As the rain was pouring at the start it was the Ducati of Dovizioso which blasted into the lead with Lorenzo following while Pedrosa made a splendid start from the second row to slot into third while polesitter Marquez made a bad start to drop to 8th.

By Lap 3 Pedrosa overtook Lorenzo and started dicing with Dovizioso for several laps until Lap14 to take control of the race. Once Rossi overtook team mate Lorenzo for third, the reigning world champion dropped down to 7th due to issues with the tyre. Cal Crutchlow rode a brave race on the satellite Yamaha with injuries to jump into 3rd while Rossi was left to defend the Ducati of Hayden. 

Midway through the race Stefan Bradl slide off the track while running 6th and soon Rossi was on the gravel too losing the front after closely chased by Nicky Hayden. Both Bradl and Rossi picked up their bikes and rejoined the race in 11th and 12th position. 

Meanwhile, Marquez running eight slowly picked up pace and started to climb up the ladder after getting ahead of Lorenzo, who was also taken up by Bautista on the Satellite Honda.

During the closing stages of the race as the track started to dry up, the Ducati of Dovizioso came under the clutches of Crutclow while Pedrosa was comfortably in the lead. As Crutchlow got ahead of the Ducati, Marquez too was flying and got ahead of Hayden and started catching up on Dovizioso.

With two laps to go Marquez made spectacular move on the esses on Dovizioso who looked nothing but helpless to challenge the young rookie. 

Pedrosa crossed the line first, 4.8secs ahead of Crutchlow who mastered injury to grab his career best 2nd place ahead of a fast flying Marc Marquez. The Ducatis of Dovizioso and Hayden crossed 4th and 5th ahead of Bautista and Lorenzo in 6th and 7th. Pirro, Smith, Bradl completed the top 10. While Rossi finished 12th behind compatriot Iannone.


2013 MotoGP French Grand Prix Results