Bastianini wins in France after Bagnaia crashes out
ENEA Bastianini secured a big win at the French MotoGP Grand Prix on Sunday after a battle with Francesco Bagnaia, which ended with the latter crashing out.
Bagnaia started on pole at Le Mans alongside fellow Ducati rider Jack Miller, and led for most of the race.
However, after working his way up from fifth, Bastianini overtook Miller and started making ground up on Bagnaia at the front.
The drama arrived on lap 21 as Bastianini overtook Bagnaia, before the latter immediately took his position back, only to hit the kicker and run wide, allowing Bastianini to ease back into the lead.
Matters got much worse for Bagnaia ust a few turns later as he crashed out, seemingly trying too hard to make the ground up.
Bagnaia had finished on the podium in six of his previous 12 MotoGP races of which he won five, though had not reached it in any of his three grands prix at Le Mans in the top category, and that run continued this time around.
Miller came home in second to at least give Ducati something to cheer, while Aleix Espargaro held off a challenge from championship leader Fabio Quartararo to take third.
Bastianini said: “I’m really happy about this race, because it was also unexpected because the weekend started really complicated for me, with three crashes. Every time I’m consistent, but here it was really difficult. But in the race, I saw that my pace was really nice, like the group that was in front of me. At the end, when I saw Pecco very close, I tried to overtake him in the second corner. In the end, he went long and I won this race. It’s all for my team because they work a lot at this Grand Prix to give me the best bike and it’s incredible, the ob they did.”
Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) maintained it as a Borgo Panigale 1-2, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro making it three premier class rostrums on the spin for the Noale factory for the first time ever - ust denying home hero and reigning Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP).
The atmosphere in the circuit hit fever pitch as riders revved up for the start of Round 7, and it was Miller who got the perfect launch from the line to take the holeshot ahead of Bastianini, who pushed his way through from the second row. Bagnaia was in third with Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins and Joan Mir split by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in P5. A poor start from Aleix Espargaro saw him drop to seventh, while Quartararo also went backwards, the Frenchman initially swallowed up by a number of riders before starting to make progress forward. A wild first lap came to a close with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) aggressively lunging up the inside of both Quartararo and Nakagami to move into P7, and it was all go everywhere. Not least for home hero Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing), who was having an equally difficult start to the GP ust behind, locked in a battle mid-pack with Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and the two making contact at Turn 6. The RC16 lost a front wing as a result.
The manic start continued back at the front, with Bagania and Rins both picking off Bastianini to drop him out of the podium places. Rins’ ambitions would come crashing to a halt at the beginning of the third lap though, with the Suzuki off track at Turn 2, through the gravel and back on at Turn 4. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep his machine upright as it returned to the tarmac, temporarily re oining but retiring soon after.
As a result, it was a Ducati one-two-three with the factory riders building up a gap out front, Miller ahead. Bagnaia was through on Lap 4 though, and the race began to settle slightly as riders found their groove. Just back of that fight, Mir led Aleix Espargaro, Quartararo and Marc Marquez.
Top three
1 Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP) - Ducati 41’34.613
2 Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) - Ducati - +2.718
3 Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) - Aprilia - +4.182.