2018 MotoGP French Grand Prix: Márquez wins at Le Mans, with Petrucci and Rossi following him on the podium

Third consecutive win for Marc Márquez, who is starting to target a new world title, although there are still many corners ahead, since we have only completed five Grands Prix. The Spaniard won at Le Mans, a circuit where he had not won for a few years, and with these 25 points added at the 2018 French GP he now leads by a much wider margin, especially considering that riders such as Andrea Dovizioso and Johann Zarco left with a zero on their scorecard.

The local favourite started from pole, but crashed while defending second place. Before that, Dovi crashed while leading. With things looking like this, Márquez only had to overtake Jorge Lorenzo to take the lead and then set his own pace. Behind them, the Spanish Ducati rider was losing ground, and the podium went to two Italians: Danilo Petrucci, who matches his best MotoGP result with second place, and Valentino Rossi, who had not stood on the podium since the first race of the year in Qatar.

If Márquez dominates in MotoGP, in Moto2 the Italian Francesco Bagnaia is dominant. Rossi’s protégé unquestionably secured his third win of the season and has already put a full race distance (25 points) between himself and the runner-up, the Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira. Bagnaia was joined on the podium by two Spaniards, Alex Márquez and Joan Mir, who reaches the podium for the first time in the category. Also worth highlighting is the great race by Vierge, who finished fifth despite starting last from the pit lane due to a mechanical problem.

In Moto3, the victory went to a Spaniard, Albert Arenas, who wins for the first time. The Ángel Nieto Team rider did not cross the line first, but a penalty given to the rider who did, Di Giannantonio, worked in his favour. The Italian, in fact, ended up off the podium, which was taken by Andrea Migno and the Andalusian Marcos Ramírez. Bezzecchi remains the leader of the smaller category despite not finishing the race, something that also happened again to Jorge Martín and Bastianini.