MOTO GP

Johann Zarco Wins in MotoGP Madness Over Marc Márquez and Fermín Aldeguer

Frenchman Johann Zarco(5) achieved a historic victory in front of his home crowd at Le Mans, nailing his strategy and giving a masterclass in wet riding to win ahead of Spaniards Marc Márquez—much stronger in the lead after Álex Márquez's crash—and Fermín Aldeguer, who is making his MotoGP podium debut.

Zarco's victory, in addition to being the first for a Frenchman at the French GP since Pierre Monneret in 1954, ends Ducati's streak of 22 consecutive wins and prevents them from surpassing the all-time record held by Honda since 1998, leaving them tied.

The changing weather meant that more than ten riders decided to enter the pit lane before the race started, prompting a red flag that aborted the start for a race declared wet. The madness continued, and up to 13 riders re-entered the pit lane, receiving two long lap penalties, including Fabio Quartararo, Marc Márquez, and Álex Márquez, who had put on slicks.

Marc Márquez got off to a better start than Fabio Quartararo, who regained the lead, with Álex Márquez, Fermín Aldeguer, and Pedro Acosta right behind them. Behind them, Enea Bastianini crashed and knocked out Pecco Bagnaia and Joan Mir, with Johann Zarco having to take a straight run through the gravel to avoid him.

Already on the first lap, several of those who had remained on the grid had second thoughts: Álex Rins, Luca Marini, and Marco Bezzecchi came in to change tires, and Pecco Bagnaia did too. Meanwhile, Quartararo pushed hard at the start and pulled away from Marc, who was overtaken by Álex on the second lap.

Quartararo was the first to enter for the first of his two long laps, following Aldeguer, only to be overtaken by Maverick Viñales shortly after. A lap later, Álex, Aldeguer—who had just overtaken Marc—and Viñales followed suit. However, Quartararo's race ended on the fifth lap, when he crashed out with Brad Binder mimicking him right behind.

Aldeguer remained in the lead, followed by Fabio Di Giannantonio, Lorenzo Savadori, and Ai Ogura, but they all entered the wet, and the lead went to Johann Zarco, five seconds ahead of Miguel Oliveira—two of the three riders (along with Takaaki Nakagami) who had started in the wet and hadn't entered the wet at any point.

Marc Márquez trailed by eight seconds, losing time by overtaking Oliveira, which caused Álex Márquez, who had managed to easily escape the Portuguese rider, to catch up with him. Behind them were Acosta and Viñales, with Aldeguer several seconds further back, clearly penalized for coming in to change tires later than the rest.

After seeing Marc close a second on his lead in one lap, Johann Zarco pushed hard and began to extend his lead over the eight-time world champion, who in turn again dropped his brother. Meanwhile, Oliveira suffered the consequences of his inactivity and lost momentum until he was progressively overtaken by Acosta and Viñales; and a few laps later, also by Aldeguer.

Aldeguer grew and went after Viñales, passing him with six laps to go, just after Miguel Oliveira—who seemed to have secured seventh place—suffered a severe highside at Turn 14. Up ahead, the race seemed stable until, with five laps to go, Álex Márquez suffered a strange crash entering Turn 3. After returning to the track in sixth place, he crashed again with four laps to go and was forced to retire.

That put Acosta in third, but Aldeguer was riding on the soft rear and was flying: he was starting to become the fastest rider on track, and on the penultimate lap, he knocked Acosta off the podium, whose mid-rear had dropped much further, giving him no chance of catching up with his fellow countryman.

Almost half a minute ahead, Johann Zarco allowed himself the luxury of spending the entire last sector greeting the 120,000 people gathered at Le Mans, with Marc Márquez coming in second, pointing to his head, and Fermín Aldeguer completely euphoric.

Pedro Acosta and Maverick Viñales managed to get two KTMs into the top five, with Takaaki Nakagami in sixth to round out Honda's day. Raúl Fernández beat Fabio Di Giannantonio in the duel for seventh place, with Lorenzo Savadori and Ai Ogura in the top 10. Álex Rins also scored points in twelfth.

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