The long wait is finally over for the country of France as Johann Zarco has finally ended the 71 year dry spell for a Frenchman to win the French Grand Prix. Emotions erupted from the stands as Zarco set foot on the podium with celebrations lively from his countryman. The grand prix was declared a wet race and Zarco took full advantage of the situation building up a near 20 second lead ahead to comfortably take the win.
The race started off red flagged due to the shift in weather but at the restart Francesco Bagnaia went down in Turn 3 on the very first lap. He said, “My strategy from the beginning was to stay on track no matter what. Unfortunately, I had some significant spinning at the start and had to close the throttle. Just before turn one, I was passed by several riders, and then came the contact with Enea (Bastianini). These things can happen, especially when there are riders on slick tyres and others on wets in the same race — speeds are very different. I’m sad because had I re-joined straight away, without needing to return to the pits due to the bike damage, I could have finished in the top five. But unfortunately, everything went the wrong way today.”
Unfortunately, for Bagnaia Marc Marquez finished P2 which further widened the gap ahead in the championship race for Bagnaia. Marc Marques widened his lead further from his brother Alex Marquez who crashed twice in the race eliminating all possibility of a podium finish. The crashes also meant Marc Marquez came away with a large points advantage on his brother.
Quartararo Falls Short
Hometown hero Fabio Quartararo crashed out of the race on lap 4 heading into the final corner of the circuit. Quartararo got tangled up with Brad Binder and both would suffer DNFs although Binder was able to recover and stay in the race for 3 more laps before retiring. Marc Marquez walks away form the French Grand Prix with a 22 point lead ahead of Alex Marquez.
French Grand Prix Results