Maverick Viñales wins the French GP at Le Mans marking the 500th GP victory for Yamaha. It was Valentino Rossi going for the victory, until he made a rare mistake crashing out just before 4 corners to the chequered flag. Johann Zarco did a perfect race from start to finish, announcing his entry to the podium in style with a P2. Dani Pedrosa made a brilliant race starting from 13th off the grid to finish at P3. As the lights went off, the top 3 Yamahas and Marquez got off to a good start while Zarco bettered others by leading the race just after 2 corners. Soon after a few laps Maverick Viñales overtook home hero Zarco, eventually leading the race.
Valentino Rossi was fighting at P3 with Zarco, while Marquez had a steady pace at P4. Meanwhile Dani Pedrosa was seen making aggressive moves to get at the front, even touching once with Andrea Dovizioso. With Viñales leading at the front, Zarco and Rossi didn't leave a stone unturned as they never allowed him to break away. Marquez in an attempt to catch Rossi, made a mistake at turn 3 and crashed at the same corner for the third time in this weekend.
Soon after with three laps to go, Rossi found the pace with his medium compound Michelin's and passed Johann Zarco at the Dunlop chicane. With that sort of pace, it was obvious that Rossi quickly made a move on Viñales to take the lead. With just one lap remaining Rossi made a blunder, going wide in the third split. This made Viñales easily pass through to take back the lead. With just 4 corners remaining, Rossi then tried to retake the lead at Garage Vert eventually locking the front to crash out. Maverick Viñales crossed the line at P1 winning Yamahas 500th GP and was followed by the French man Johann Zarco. Dani Pedrosa completed the podium at P3, who is now second in the Championship standings.
*** Rossi sliding out at the Garage Vert
Andrea Dovizioso was the top Ducati at P4 followed by Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo and Jonas Folger. Following a big crash from yesterday, Jack Miller finished the race at a good P8. Loris Baz and Andrea Iannone completed the top 10 of the points table. Both the factory KTM riders scored points with Pol Espargaro at P12 and Bradley Smith at P13 respectively. Sam Lowes scored MotoGP for the very first time as he secured a P14 finish. Sylvian Guintoli finished the race at 15th position, scoring a point. Four satellite Ducati riders retired from the race today - Hector Barbera, Karel Abraham, Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci.
At the end of 5 Rounds, the Championship is now lead by Maverick Viñales, followed by Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi. The grid now moves to Rossi's home race at Autodromo del Mugello, Italy in two weeks time. Meanwhile stay tuned to BikesMedia for further updates on the 2017 MotoGP World Championship.
By: Aravind Rb