Johann Zarco became the first French rider to win their home Grand Prix in 71 years with victory in a madcap French Grand Prix, the 34-year-old veteran producing a career-best performance in a rain-affected sixth round of the season at Le Mans on Sunday.
Every MotoGP qualifying, practice and race LIVE and ad-break free from lights out to the chequered flag. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
The Honda rider, whose only previous MotoGP win came in Australia in 2023, came through from 11th on the grid and narrowly survived a first-lap incident that left him in 17th place to splash through worsening conditions to become the first French winner of their home Grand Prix since Pierre Monneret in Reims in 1954.
Zarco’s victory, on his 150th start, was the first for the independent LCR Honda team since Alex Rins won the Grand Prix of the Americas in 2023, and prevented Ducati from taking a 23rd consecutive Grand Prix victory, which would have seen the Italian brand break Honda’s record of 22 straight wins in 1997-98.
MORE MOTOGP NEWS
FRANCE SPRINT REPORT Spanish star stays perfect on Saturdays to reclaim series lead
YAMAHA’S POWER PLAY The big boost for MotoGP’s slowest bike, and why Aussie stands to benefit
Marc Marquez (Ducati) finished second, 19.907 seconds behind Zarco, and extended his championship lead to 22 points after younger brother Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) crashed out of third place.
Alex Marquez’s rookie teammate Fermin Aldeguer took his maiden Grand Prix podium with third, a day after the Spanish debutant finished third in the sprint race won by Marquez.
“It’s hard to believe. I still don’t understand what is happening,” said Zarco, who celebrated his success with a trademark backflip in front of a race-day crowd of 120,403 fans, the weekend crowd (311,797) the largest for a single event in MotoGP history.
“The last laps were quite long and I need a bit of time [to understand] … it was just magic. With the rain tyres at the beginning I had to control, I didn’t want to burn the tyre, and then more rain is coming but I could control the gap.”
Australia’s Jack Miller (Yamaha) crashed out on lap seven of the 26-lap race while inside the top 10 and on wet-weather tyres, after the start of the race was aborted after all 22 riders pitted from slick tyres as the rain worsened on the warm-up lap.
Zarco was forced to run across the gravel trap on the opening lap after KTM’s Enea Bastianini crashed into Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, Honda’s Joan Mir checking up to avoid Bagnaia and nudging Zarco off track.
In treacherous conditions that saw six riders, including pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), Alex Marquez and Miller’s teammate Miguel Oliveira all crash out and fail to finish and several other riders fall and then rejoin in a race that became a lottery, Zarco kept his head and used his vast experience to build a lead when both Marquez brothers and Aldeguer pitted for bikes with wet-weather tyres inside the opening eight laps.
Zarco was immaculate in conditions that improved midway through the race and then worsened again as the laps counted down, with Marquez content to bank 20 world championship points on a day where his two closest rivals, Alex Marquez and Bagnaia (who finished 16th and outside of the points) failed to score.
Round seven of the 22-round MotoGP season will take place at Silverstone in England from May 23-25.
Discussion about this post