Dani Pedrosa and Toni Elias get on the highest step of the rostrum in France.
Valentino Rossi finishes second in MotoGP, Fonsi Nieto fourth in 250cc, and Pablo Nieto fifth in 125cc.
This season’s French Grand Prix will be remembered because of the weather instability throughout the weekend, as a result of which the MotoGP race had to be carried out in two parts. After the 125cc and 250cc were carried out in dry conditions but with big black clouds covering the sky of Le Mans, the race of the premier class started with a completely dry track but with the teams’ uncertainty about the weather. And finally the weather was up to its tricks. Fifteen laps of the MotoGP race had been covered and Rossi was leading it with a couple of seconds of advantage over the rest of the pack, when the rain appeared and the race was neutralised. According to the new regulations, there were thirteen laps left and those were going to be the valid ones, meaning that the laps covered until that moment would not count at all. After the new start and with some wet areas and some dry areas on the track, three riders quickly took the lead and opened a gap with regard to the rest: Alex Barros in the front, followed by Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau, setting a fast pace that took them to even overtake the eleventh classified rider. With three laps to go, Barros was left behind with a gap of about one second, leaving alone Rossi and Gibernau, who after a masterful last lap clinched an exciting victory. Sete Gibernau crossed the finish line only a tenth and a bit before Valentino Rossi, who continues to lead the overall standings but had to settle for second. His team-mate Nicky Hayden solved a complicated weekend with a twelfth final position that allowed him to keep the overall eighth place.
Nice race of the 250cc class on the French layout, with the Repsol riders as clear protagonists. The fifth lap was decisive for the race, when the championship leader Manuel Poggiali ran too fast into a right-hand corner, clipping the rear of Porto’s machine. This incident allowed local hero De Puniet and Toni Elias to pull away from the rest of the pack. While De Puniet was leading the race, with Elias waiting patiently behind, Nieto was fighting for the third position on the rostrum. At mid-race, Elias overtook De Puniet and began heading for his second consecutive victory of the season. His team-mate Fonsi Nieto, who lap by lap managed to get and overtake Guintoli, third, wasn’t able to keep the position due to vision problems with his helmet. Behind Fonsi, who finished fourth, Joan Olivé, and his team-mate, Héctor Faubel, showed very good performances finishing tenth and eleventh respectively.
After the difficult group race in Jerez, where he missed the podium during the last laps, Dani Pedrosa didn’t want to leave any option at all to his rivals in the 125cc race. Second after the first lap, Pedrosa set a very fast pace from the beginning of the race, lapping half a second faster than the rest of the riders, what allowed him to quickly pull away from the group. Dani’s race was a race all by himself until the chequered flag. Meanwhile there was en exciting dispute for the second place in the back that finally was won by the Italian rider Cecchinello. Pablo Nieto, with several physical problems on his back, overcame his pain to get a very meritorious fifth place, while his team-mate Héctor Barberá, with engine problems, finished eleventh.
