Incredible scenario this Sunday at the GP of France. A Frenchman won the test but not the one we thought. In pole on Saturday, Fabio Quartararo leaves the role of the hero to Johann Zarco, who became the first tricolor to win at home since 1954 after a race marked by the rain.
We thought of the hope of a victory at home evaporate from the fourth round. He was reappeared four laps later. ALLORS THAT FABIO FOURTHARAROsecond at this moment of the race, argued the orders for the race with Marc Marquez, the 26 -year -old French man went to the fault with Brad Binder. A fall in the gravel synonymous with the end of the race, but not the end of emotions for the French public of the Bugatti circuit of Le Mans.
The rain was invited, the majority of the peloton went through the stands and Johann Zarco arose. Only eleventh on the starting grid, the other Frenchman in the running at the MotoGP World Championship was clearer and daring than the rest of the set. The Honda-LCR driver had put on rain tires from the start of the Grand Prix de France. As a result, Zarco went from the fifth to the first position in the 8th round of the race. All, with more than 8 seconds ahead of Marc Marquez.
Skilled in the rain and on a wet track, he did better than resist the six -time Spanish world champion. DespiteOnly one victory in his record in MotoGP And the pressure generated by a potential success at home, the 34 -year -old pilot flew.
First in the 21st century
In 2023, on the Australian circuit of Phillip Island, he had made a fantastic end of race and had leaded at the start of the last round. This time, Zarco had to hold 18 laps in front, far from the falls that multiplied in Sarthe. Passed between the drops at the start of the Grand Prix, he only grabbed time to Marquez once the way.
Behind, the conditions have however spared no one and even less Alex Marquez, irreproachable since the start of the season. The dolphin of his brother in the general classification leads to precious points to Marc, second in Le Mans, while Pedro Acosta inherited the third position of the GP.
But the important thing was not so much in the general classification as in history books. It is indeed a question of going back to the last century – to 1954, Reims and Pierre Monneret – to find a trace of a tricolor victory over the national GP in the queen category. For his 150th start in MotoGP, Zarco put an end to this expectation. 71 years later.
