A race has happened, since this one took place, folks. Playing catch up, with some of these races. Right now, stay tuned for highlights of MotoGP in France, at Le Mans, along with Moto2 and Moto3 to come later, and then, stay tuned, for the most recent event, in Italy.
***
We are at the Bugatti circuit, the motorcycle circuit at Le Mans in France. This will be a 28 lap race. Jorge Lorenzo has scored his first pole at Le Mans, and he's won in MotoGP here, four times. Everyone seems to be booing Jorge Lorenzo. It is disrespectful and uncalled for. Marc Marquez starts second for this race. Pol Espargaro rolls off in fourth place. Bradley Smith, is sixth, on row two of the grid. Valentino Rossi is seventh. He has a number of podiums and three wins at Le Mans in 2002, 2005, and 2008. Maverick Vinales will roll off sixth. Dani Pedrosa starts 11th. Maverick Vinales is eighth. Aleix Espargaro is 12th. Hector Barbera is 13th. Cal Crutchlow rolls off in ninth place, as we continue to randomly highlight riders on the starting grid, before we get set to go racing, in France.
14th is Scott Redding. He is a former winner at Le Mans, in Moto2. Yonny Hernandez completes the top 15. Andrea Dovizioso is fifth. Eugene Laverty is 16th. He has had a tougher time at Le Mans. 17th is Stefan Bradl on the Aprilia. Alvaro Bautista matches his bike number, starting 19th. There is a record crowd ready to witness MotoGP at Le Mans. Jack Miller is 18th, and his ankle is giving him pain. He's been limping. Tito Rabat is 20th. Andrea Ianonne is on the front row. Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi mentions that the wind has picked up.
Almost every bike has winglets on it. The wind is blowing them into turn one from the rear. Danilo Petrucci has a damaged right hand, but he has come back to racing, here at Le Mans. All riders on row two are using medium and soft compound tires. Medium, hard, and medium front, and all soft, rear tires, for each rider, on the front row of the starting grid, including Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, and Andrea Ianonne. Five minutes to go before this race starts, as the BMW M2 safety car, moves away from the grid.
Who will win? We'll find out. Despite crashing at the end of qualifying, Andrea Ianonne starts third. Marc Marquez will be a contender. Jorge Lorenzo wants to go two in a row at Le Mans, from his 63rd career pole position. 21 riders will contest this race. Marc Marquez has a 17 point lead in the championship. Racing conditions are essentially perfect. The majority of the field are at medium and soft compounds on their Michelin tires. Some have harder front tires, aiding in braking, taking away grip. We wait for the red flag to be taken away from the front of the grid, and MotoGP will be racing, in France!
The 17th successive running of the French motorcycle Grand Prix, starts, now! Lorenzo flies away from everyone, bursting into the race lead! Pol Espargaro and Andrea Dovizioso, have both swept in front of Marc Marquez. Lorenzo leads into the Dunlop chicane for the first time. The perfect start, from Jorge Lorenzo, means that he might sail away from everyone, in this race. Into La Chapelle corner for the first time. Off to the left is the track, for the car version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Now, the motorcycles, make their way through Museum corner. Andrea Dovizioso makes a move on Pol Espargaro.
Through Garage Vert (green garage) corner, for the first time, and Marc Marquez is moving to the front, in a hurry. Pol Espargaro and Valentino Rossi head for the Chemain au Boeuf s curves. Rossi gets roughed up by Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith. Smith, makes a move on him. Lorenzo leads Dovizioso by half a second. Rossi moves on Aleix Espargaro and makes it stick through the Dunlop chicane. Rossi will next try passing Pol Espargaro, Aleix's younger brother. Jorge Lorenzo continues to lead this one. Through Garage Vert another time, where Marc Marquez had issues during both practice and qualifying. Lorenzo is pulling away. Can the Ducati's hang on to the Yamaha?
Bradley Smith runs ahead of Maverick Vinales, who got away poorly out of the starting blocks. Rossi goes inside Pol Espargaro. Rossi makes a classic block pass on Espargaro, as we see Lorenzo lay down the first fastest lap of this race at 1:33.724. Aleix Espargaro moves around Bradley Smith. Valentino Rossi now has the task of running down Marc Marquez. Catching is one thing. Passing, is another. Lorenzo continues to lead, back into the S curves again. Andrea Dovizioso continues to hang on at the front, right behind Jorge Lorenzo, hoping for a chance to pounce and bring the Ducati to the front.
Andrea Ianonne now steals fast lap at 1:33.512. Cal Crutchlow now begins pressuring Bradley Smith. Into La Chapelle again, it's a sibling rivalry on the speedway for the two Espargaro brothers. Whoa! Into Museum corner, Pol Espargaro is out of the seat, and almost gets launched off his bike, into orbit! He fortunately, saves it! Maverick Vinales takes advantage, as well. It seems Pol Espargaro locked the front brake and that messed up his run into La Chapelle. The gap is 9/10ths of a second, as we wait for the Rossi and Marquez show to start. Will these two have a major dust up? We're going to find out.
In a scrap of their own are Bradley Smith, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, and Scott Redding. Rossi brings fast lap down to 1:33.293. Lorenzo leads, but the Ducati's are hot on his heels. Lorenzo is waiting to have the fuel load lighten and for the Michelin tires to bed themselves in. Then, he knows he can fly. He'll then say, "hey boys, can you touch this?" To quote MC Hammer, he'll say, "no, dude... can't touch this!" It is well documented that there is a sour off track relationship between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi. Will those sour lemons continue on the track? Rossi is trying to take time out of Marquez.
Lorenzo leads through the double Recordement right hand turn at the end of the lap, where the Ford Chicane would be for the Le Mans car race. Andrea Ianonne passes Andrea Dovizioso, saying, "let me lead this second pack." Or maybe, he's just saying to Dovizioso, "in yo' face!" Ianonne is wide through Museum. These two are fighting for one open spot on the Ducati factory squad, next year, and perhaps one of them, may join Jorge Lorenzo there. Rossi is losing time to Marquez. Marquez is closing on the Ducati's, and motoring away from Rossi. Fastest lap to Marquez that time at 1:33.576. He's the fastest bloke on the road right now.
Game over for Scott Redding, with mechanical woes on the Pramac Ducati. Oh dear, oh dear! Andrea Ianonne has wrecked the Ducati! So, that's another one, headed for the house. Ianonne ditches the bike at Garage Vert. More carnage. Cal Crutchlow has crashed out of his fourth of five races! In the blue esses, he'll be gutted. Valentino Rossi has made it up to fourth. Lorenzo looks to be in the pound seats to take win number two on the year. Lots of racing left in this one, though. Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro battle for fifth. It's another episode of, The Suzuki Show! Another crash. Tito Rabat, falls at turn six.
Vinales runs wide at Chemain aux Boeuf. Jorge Lorenzo is steaming along, in the lead. He's 2.2 seconds up on his competition. The top seventeen or so riders that are still left in this event are Lorenzo leading, followed by Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Vinales, Aleix Espargaro, Bradley Smith, Dani Pedrosa, Danilo Petrucci, Eugene Laverty, Stefan Bradl, Hector Barbera, Jack Miller, Alvaro Bautista, and Loris Baz. It's a battle attrition. Ianonne is back on track. Yonny Hernandez is also out.
The gap is shrinking between Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez. Scott Redding, has stopped. The motor died on his bike. Marc Marquez closes on Andrea Dovizioso between Museum and Garage Vert. We aren't even at half distance through this race yet, folks. Jorge Lorenzo continues to whistle off into the distance, while Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez, begin to battle for best of the rest. Marc Marquez has the harder compound front tire, however, Cal Crutchlow and Tito Rabat, who chose the hard tires, crashed. Ianonne is out. Game over. The front end washes away, and he's down, and out, sliding painfully across the pavement and the gravel trap.
The trouble is, with his crashes, Andrea Ianonne's issues, are down to being self inflicted. He has not had bad luck. He's just wrecked so many times, and this means, his chance to partner Jorge Lorenzo at Ducati next year, are becoming slimmer. Valentino Rossi begins closing on Marc Marquez. Hang onto your seats, ladies and gentlemen! This race is going to get wild, fast. Rossi looks inside into Museum, letting Marquez know he's there. These two have had a falling out, and they are not best of friends at all. Rossi smells blood, at Garage Vert, the shark takes the fish, and the crowd goes bonkers!
Rossi is now on the podium. Can Marc Marquez challenge? Jorge Lorenzo is on a Sunday cruise. Rossi is now right on Andrea Dovizioso. Rossi is the quickest of the three riders in this battle. Lorenzo sets his best lap of the race at 1:33.432. Rossi runs inside Dovizioso at Museum. Rossi is second, and will try chasing down Lorenzo. Marc Marquez is slowing down, because he is abusing his front tire. Halfway home as they cross the line once more. Your running order at halfway is (in the points paying places), Lorenzo, Rossi, Dovizioso, Marquez, Vinales, Aleix Espargaro, Pedrosa, Pol Espargaro, Smith, Petrucci, Barbera, Laverty, Miller, Bautista, and Bradl.
Dovizioso wants to pass Rossi, but knows that Marquez is wanting to swallow him up in one big gulp. Rossi has not been able to pull away. Marquez is having time eaten out of his gap, to Dovizioso, meaning he's got to take more risks. Scratch that, folks! It's all for naught! Dovizioso and Marquez have both crashed! Game over! Battle null and void! These two crashed in tandem! Unbelievable! That was synchronized crashing! We saw this, in World Superbike, sometimes. But, has this ever occurred in MotoGP? Um... possibly. Yours truly can't remember.
There were no distractions. Those two wrecked at the same moment. Unbelievable! Lorenzo and Rossi lead at Le Mans for Yamaha, and this could also put Maverick Vinales on course for his first MotoGP podium, with Suzuki! Lorenzo tries to win the race. But he does not know that he's the world championship leader, by eight points! Unreal! Looking at the Dovizioso/Marquez wreck, they lost it at precisely the same moment, if you'd timed it with a stopwatch. This could have happened once before, in the 500cc days, with Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan spilling their bikes at the same moment in the same corner, at the Nurburgring.
Jorge Lorenzo is going to take the points lead, with Valentino Rossi in second. This'll be crazy, going into Mugello in Italy. Disclaimer. Yours truly knows that the Mugello race, has happened. Haven't looked at anything yet. So, stay tuned, later on, for Mugello action in Italy. Let's resolve this contest, first. Please be careful, boys. Marc Marquez is just riding for a single point right now. It is incredible. The Ducati team management, their hair must be on fire, because they've let so many podium places slip through their fingers, already, in 2016.
Lorenzo is invincible, because his lap times are totally consistent, and have not deviated by 2/10ths or 3/10ths of a second. Oh dear. The war of attrition continues. Crash, and game over, for Jack Miller. If he keeps going, Marc Marquez will finish 14th in this Grand Prix. Dani Pedrosa now runs fourth, 2.5 seconds in-arrears of Maverick Vinales. If Maverick Vinales gets third place, it will be the first Suzuki podium in MotoGP, since 2009, when Loris Capirossi rode to third, for them, at Brno in the Czech Republic, a track MotoGP visits, later this summer. Another fall. Bradley Smith, down and out.
Museum corner catches another one. With Smith's tumble, it puts Marc Marquez up to 13th spot. Danilo Petrucci and Hector Barbera now run seventh and eighth, with six laps to go. The Espargaro brothers run fifth and sixth and Pol Espargaro leads his older brother. We watch Loris Baz running in 12th spot. Eugene Laverty is having a solid run in 11th, the next spot up the road. Stefan Bradl runs ahead of Laverty, in tenth. Alvaro Bautista is gaining, and is 2.2 seconds clear of his Aprilia team mate. Rossi is 3/10ths behind Jorge Lorenzo. Rossi needs 20 points for his championship challenge. Keep the pace going, and stay in a rhythm. Six laps to go now.
Tito Rabat is OK. But, Jorge Lorenzo is crushing the field at Le Mans. He has 8.7 seconds over Rossi. Maverick Vinales will earn his first podium finish. Will Vinales stay at Suzuki, or join Yamaha next year? Will the podium for Suzuki sway Vinales' decisions about 2017? Suzuki team boss Davide Brivio looks on. Danilo Petrucci runs seventh, with Hector Barbera, eighth. Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl, come next. Two laps left, as Jorge Lorenzo will take his 42nd MotoGP win. He will have his 139th podium, and his fifth win out of nine MotoGP races here at Le Mans.
Final lap for Lorenzo. He's comfortably ahead of Rossi. Maverick Vinales will get his first MotoGP podium. Dani Pedrosa wrecked in qualifying, but has recovered well. Last time out in Jerez, was the first 1-2 for Yamaha since Catalunya last year. Back to back 1-2 finishes for Yamaha. Hector Barbera tries to go inside Danilo Petruci, and can't quite do it. Petrucci has the advantage, for seventh spot. Petrucci takes it in hot into Museum. Barbera dives inside at Garage Vert! Oh boy! Barbera tries to block, runs wide, and Petrucci will get the spot. But, Jorge Lorenzo, dominates at Le Mans, and wins the French Grand Prix!
He is now the championship points leader! Valentino Rossi second, and first career MotoGP podium for Maverick Vinales! Suzuki gets their first premier class podium, in seven years!
#99 Jorge Lorenzo ESP. Yamaha
Bautista and Bradl finish tenth for Aprilia. Marc Marquez finishes 13th. The next race, has happened, at Mugello in Italy. But, the race, will be highlighted here, in due time. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment