Bezzecchi holds his nerve as his title contenders go down in the French circuit’s gravel traps
Marco Bezzecchi took an emphatic win at the French GP, making it four wins for Italian riders over the opening five MotoGP. That hasn’t happened since 2006 with the line-up of Loris Capirossi, Valentino Rossi and Marco Melandri. Jorge Martin came home second with Johann Zarco taking a popular third in his home country.
But the race will be best remembered for the multiple crashes which took out a number of the main contenders and sidelined a number of riders trying to move up the championship order.
Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia had a nasty crash in the turn 9 chicane with Maverick Vinales, which saw them scuffling in a gravel trap until they were separated by the marshals.
Vinales tried to pass Bagnaia for third place, but as Bagnaia cut back the two collided heavily and sending them off the track and down into the gravel. Both riders were unhurt.
There was further chaos as Luca Marini attempted to save a lowside with his elbow out of turn 4, but was hit by the unsighted Alex Marquez. Both went down and slid down the track. Fortunately, the chasing pack managed to avoid both riders.
Marc Marquez, who seems to have returned to good form also crashed out close to the end of the race, to dash his comeback hopes, but it still looks good for the Spanish multiple world champion.
The race also broke the all-time event attendance record for MotoGP with 278,805 spectators, albeit with a fair amount of debris for the organisers to collect up after the race.
The MotoGP paddock now moves on to Mugello in Italy.
Comments are closed.