On the first lap of the Michelin® Grand Prix of France, after being pushed off the track by another rider, Johann Zarco was out of the points zone. His Sunday seemed compromised.
At the start of the final lap, he was leading with a twenty-second advantage over the fastest of his pursuers. His team manager, Lucio Cecchinello, ran a nervous hand over his face. His parents were inside the garage, their emotions hard to contain. Around the circuit, their eyes glued to the track and the giant screens, over 100,000 spectators of his own nationality were holding their breath, ready to explode in a roar of celebration.
One minute and 50 seconds later, after completing the final lap, those shouts rose from the Le Mans circuit to greet the success of a Frenchman in his home GP. In the premier class, this hadn't happened since 1954, when Pierre Monneret had achieved it.
Second place went to Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team), third was rookie Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), in his sixth Grand Prix in the top class.
Rain changes everything
Tensions were high even before the start, with a light rain making everything more difficult. The choice they faced: start on slick or rain tyres?
When they left the grid for the warm-up lap, the riders were all in dry set-up. But they found themselves riding on eggshells. Returning to the pits to change, they brought out the red flags.
A few minutes later, the second start procedure was initiated, and things changed again, with the track appearing to improve. After exiting the pitlane for the sighting lap on rain tyres, most of the riders came in to change bikes, thus receiving a double long lap penalty.
Among them, poleman Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), championship leader Marc Marquez and his brother Alex (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), second in the title race. They started on slick tyres, like most of the grid.
On rain tyres, and without penalties to serve unlike several colleagues, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), third in the general classification. Ditto for Jack Miller (Prima Pramac Yamaha), a specialist in mixed conditions, and Zarco.
Bagnaia hit
The three had a weaker start than those who started on the dry bike, losing positions. At the third corner Bagnaia was hit by Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3) and ended up on the ground. Joan Mir (Honda HCR Castrol), to avoid the accident, corrected his trajectory, hitting Zarco, who ended up in the gravel and rejoined the track outside the points zone. The Castrol LCR Honda rider started from eleventh place on the grid.
In the early stages, the treacherous conditions, penalties and bike changes saw several riders alternate in the lead. Among them Quartararo, who fell on lap five while running second.
Zarco ahead after the chaos
The situation stabilized about a third of the way through the race, when the riders were able to express their pace, the rain was more insistent (those who had started with slicks had to come in to switch to rain tires). Zarco, with a good choice of tires and despite the troubles at the start, found himself in the lead with a margin of about seven seconds over Miguel Oliveira (Prima Pramac Yamaha), who dropped back in the following laps, dropping several positions before falling on the final corner, right where his teammate Quartararo had ended up KO. Miller also fell at that point on the track.
Marc Marquez, in second position, saw the gap from Zarco increase as the laps went by. About ten in 14th, twelve in 17th, twenty in 20th.
Then, on the twenty-first of the 26 scheduled laps, Alex Marquez made his first mistake, falling while he was third. Back on the bike, he found himself in sixth place but ended up on the ground again a few laps later.
Aldeguer's recovery
On the lowest step of the podium at that point was Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who however was riding a medium rain rear and not a soft one, like the first two and like Aldeguer, fourth, who was making up ground. In about five laps, the number 54 closed a gap of six seconds and pushed his KTM compatriot out of the podium zone. For the rookie, it was his first top 3 in the premier class.
Acosta was fourth under the checkered flag, ahead of his teammate Maverick Vinales (Red Bull KTM Tech3). Wildcard Takaaki Nakagami (Honda HRC Test Team) was sixth.
