French GP. Race

Valentino Rossi and Fonsi Nieto, victory and consolidated leadership in France
Great excitement in the highest class this Sunday, with both Repsol Honda MotoGP riders leading the race and occupying the first two places of the podium. New victory for Rossi, three out of four, and second place for his teammate Tohru Ukawa. Same position for both in the overall classification, with Rossi enjoying an advantage of 34 points over his teammate. Both Repsol riders have set a strong pace from the beginning of the race. Only the Yamaha riders Biaggi and Checa have been able to keep the pace of the leading riders during the first laps. Checa’s crash left Biaggi alone, who was changing the leadership with Rossi and Ukawa. With only six laps to go and the first rain drops falling, Rossi passed Ukawa, lifted his hand in the next lap and the race was concluded after the Clerk of the Course decided to show the red flag. With no doubt an excellent result and a great weekend for the Repsol Honda MotoGP team. In the 250cc, Fonsi Nieto is reinforcing his leadership and his position as one of the firmest candidates for the World Championship crown of this season. After finishing the first lap in third place behind Locatelli and Melandri, Fonsi decided to control his rivals from the back until the tenth lap, when he decided to take the leadership. From that moment on he set a faster pace, which only Melandri was able to follow. The last two laps have been the most exciting of the race, with Melandri and Nieto considerably slowing down in order not to reach the last lap in front of their rival Given the confusion created between them, with several very tight overtakings and two seconds lower times, Fonsi took over the lead and made a brilliant last lap that earned him the victory and an increase of his advantage in the overall classification, that he is already leading by 17 points. His teammate Toni Elías has also been a protagonist of the race. After the start – ninth after the first lap – a hit against Aoki during the second lap set him back to the thirteenth position, but he made an excellent recovery finishing sixth and making the third fastest lap of the race. In the smallest category Daniel Pedrosa and Joan Olivé have had different luck. While Pedrosa, fourth in the overall classification, took the podium with a third place after a mistake-free race, his teammate Olivé retired after being involved in a crash with the Italian Sanna.