Bastianini cruises to Le Mans victory
ENEA Bastianini grabbed his third MotoGP victory in seven races this season as he took the French Grand Prix at Le Mans yesterday.
The Italian, riding a Gresini Ducati, cruised home 2.718 seconds ahead of Australian Jack Miller on a factory Ducati.
Bastianini overtook compatriot Francesco Bagnaia in the late stages when the factory Ducati rider made an error.
Bagnaia reacted to his first mistake by at once making another, falling off his bike as he tried to hit back on the 20th lap.
At one stage there had been a three-way battle for first place, but Joan Mir rode his Suzuki off the track on the 13th lap, managed to steer the bike back onto the tarmac but then immediately fell off.
“I’m really happy with this race because this victory is unexpected,” said Bastianini.
“During the race I saw that my rhythm was really good.”
Spaniard Aleix Espargaro, on an Aprilia, was third after holding off championship leader Fabio Quartararo over the closing laps.
“I knew Fabio was behind me but I knew it was difficult for him to overtake me,” said Espargaro.
“The race was about not making mistakes.”
“It was a very difficult race, the most difficult of the season so far,” added Espargaro.
Frenchman Quartararo retained the championship lead, but his advantage was reduced to four points over Espargaro and eight from Bastianini.
The other French rider of the race, Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac), who started ninth, finished fifth after having overtaken multi-world champion Marc Marquez to the cheers of the huge crowd.
In addition to Bagnaia and Mir, the other Suzuki rider, Alex Rins, the two KTM-Tech3 riders, Australian Remy Gardner and Spaniard Raul Fernandez all crashed while Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac) and Miguel Oliveira (KTM) dropped out.
South African Brad Binder was the only KTM rider to finish the race, ending a miserable outing for the Austria-based team.
Despite a terrible qualifying run which saw him start 18th on the grid, the elder Binder managed to fight his way to an eighth-place finish. He finished 18.459 seconds behind Bastianini, collecting eight points in the process.
Binder is now also eighth in the world riders’ championship, while KTM have dropped to fourth in the constructors’ standings and fifth in the team standings after another poor weekend.
Rookie Darryn Binder finished two spots outside the points in 17th for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team.