Jorge Lorenzo wins exciting French Grand Prix
It was another perfect weekend for Jorge Lorenzo who took a consecutive victory in LeMans, France after his recent victory in his home turf Jerez in Spain while Rossi came in 2nd and Dovizioso finished 3rd.
Lorenzo riding his Factory Yamaha M1 made a brilliant start from third, beating Dovizioso while Marquez made a bad start and almost touching Iannone before c1. Lorenzo opened an early lead over Dovizioso as Marquez was struggling with the bike running too deep into Dunlop chicane while Valentino Rossi who was 7th on the grid started to climb up the ladder overtaking one at a time.
Dani Pedrosa returning after an arm pump surgery, lost his front end while running 7th on his factory Honda on lap 2 but remounted to continue the race.
Dovizioso was hanging behind Lorenzo with a gap of over 1 second while Iannone with a dislocated shoulder was third. Rossi started to close in on the top runners after quickly disposing Marquez in a fast move which made the Honda rider to run wide and lose places to Smith & Crutchlow.
Crutchlow crashed while he was behind Marquez as his leg slipped and he accidentally grabbed the front brake.
The charge of the race was as usual by Valentino Rossi who caught up Iannone for 3rd and set his eyes on Dovizioso in 2nd on the other Ducati. Sighting Rossi's charge, the leader Lorenzo started hammer few more seconds in the lead.
As Rossi quickly displaced Dovizioso he was almost 2.1secs behind his team mate Lorenzo but the leader made some consistent laps to maintain his gap and deny Rossi a chance to close in.
In the later stages Marquez regained speed and started to close in on Iannone and their scrap for supremacy was exciting. Iannone struggling with a shoulder injury managed to put a fight with some amazing overtaking moves on Marquez but had to give in eventually.
Lorenzo took the chequered flag 3.8secs ahead of his team mate Valentino Rossi while Dovizioso finished 3rd almost 12.3 seconds behind.
Marquez edged Iannone for 4th while Smith and Pol Espargaro came in 6th & 7th ahead of Yonny Hernandez in 8th.
Suzuki´s top rider Aleix Espargaro retired from the race on lap 2 due to technical problem while team mate Maverick Vinales brought in his Suzuki in 9th ahead of Petrucci in 10th.
MotoGP - 2015 French Grand Prix - Race Results
Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 43´44.143 |
2 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +3.820 |
3 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | +12.380 |
4 | Marc MARQUEZ | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +19.890 |
5 | Andrea IANNONE | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | +20.237 |
6 | Bradley SMITH | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +21.145 |
7 | Pol ESPARGARO | SPA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +35.493 |
8 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Pramac Racing | Ducati | +39.601 |
9 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +41.571 |
10 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | Pramac Racing | Ducati | +42.789 |
11 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | +53.636 |
12 | Loris BAZ | FRA | Athinà Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | +1´00.617 |
13 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +1´04.272 |
14 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | +1´05.259 |
15 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +1´05.515 |
16 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +1´20.907 |
17 | Alex DE ANGELIS | RSM | Octo IodaRacing Team | ART | +1´21.663 |
18 | Marco MELANDRI | ITA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 1 Lap |
Not Classified | |||||
Jack MILLER | AUS | CWM LCR Honda | Honda | 14 Laps | |
Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | AB Motoracing | Honda | 14 Laps | |
Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | CWM LCR Honda | Honda | 21 Laps | |
Scott REDDING | GBR | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 25 Laps | |
Mike DI MEGLIO | FRA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 25 Laps | |
Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 26 Laps | |
Stefan BRADL | GER | Athinà Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | 27 Laps |