Out of the chaos of Le Mans springs Johann Zarco, still down Pecco Bagnaia

In one of the most chaotic and confusing MotoGP races ever seen Johann Zarco on Honda at the Le Mans circuit becomes the first Frenchman to win the French Grand Prix after 71 years. Second is undisputed MotoGP leader Marc Marquez on an official Ducati, third the other Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer on a Ducati Gresini. Pecco Bagnaia, knocked to the ground at the start, finishes melancholically sixteenth.

Unbelievable chaos before the start: it starts raining and the starting procedure is interrupted. It is tried again and a wet macaw is given, everyone starts from the pits for the recon lap with rain tires, the problem is that it is no longer raining and many stop and mount slicks.

Moral of the fairy tale, everyone who stopped will have to do a double penalty lap, including the brothers Marquez and Quartararo, the latter tries the escape, then makes the first penalty and shortly after falls among the disappointment of the public. Bagnaia also crashed at the start, hit by a KTM, but the Turinese rider manages to restart. Meanwhile, it starts raining again and the Marquez brothers have to stop again to change tires.

In all this chaos, Zarco emerges, who did not have to stop to put on wet tires and did not take any penalties and with his Castrol Honda LCR is the first Frenchman to win a home race valid for the motomondialen in the premier class since 1954 when Pierre Monneret on Gilera won at Reims in the 500. For Zarco, it is his second MotoGP victory after his Oct. 22, 2023 win in Phillip Island, Australia, on the Ducati.

Marc increases his lead to 22 points over his brother Alex, who threw away third place due to a crash with six laps to go, giving it to teammate Aldeguer, who got his first podium in the rookie category thanks to an overtake on Pedro Acosta’s KTM with two laps to go. Bagnaia’s points gap from the top instead now stands at 51.