Lorenzo the rain-master at Le Mans

It was a blast from the past as Valentino Rossi pushed the Ducati in difficult conditions to battle with his old rival, World champion Casey Stoner on the Honda, for second at Le Mans.

It was a blast from the past as Valentino Rossi pushed the Ducati in difficult conditions to battle with his old rival, World champion Casey Stoner on the Honda, for second at Le Mans.

Published May 21, 2012

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On a day that saw all three classes of the MotoGP World Championship come up against the worst weather conditions seen so far this season in the Grand Prix de France at Le Mans, it was Yamaha team leader Jorge Lorenzo who retook the championship lead as he dominated in tricky conditions.

He finished ahead of Ducati's Valentino Rossi, who recorded his and the Italian marque's best result since joining them last season.

Honda's Dani Pedrosa got off to one of his trademark rocket starts, closely followed by team mate Casey Stoner, but their lead was short-lived, as Lorenzo charged past into the lead and promptly pulled out a small but crucial gap. Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow also made a good start in fourth, followed by a charged-up Rossi.

It was heartache for the French fans from the beginning as local rider Randy de Puniet dropped his ART on the grid, and had to head out on his spare one.

ROSSI ON THE MOVE

At the front, Rossi soon moved past Crutchlow to take fourth, with Dovizioso relegating his team Yamaha Tech 3 team mate to sixth almost immediately.

As Lorenzo built up a three-second lead, Stoner pushed past Pedrosa to chase down his championship rival. Pedrosa seemed to struggling on the wet surface, with Rossi capitalising on this to take third with 21 laps left.

Then Dovizioso and Crutchlow pushed Pedrosa even further down the order in their attempts to hunt down Rossi.

Lorenzo's team mate Ben Spies was struggling and had a wobble at the end of Turn 2, shortly after which he entered the pits.

With Lorenzo maintaining his three-second lead over Stoner, the battle for third between Crutchlow, Dovizioso and Rossi provided some breath-taking overtaking in horrific conditions, until Crutchlow lost the front in the first chicane, leaving the two Italians to fight it out.

CLASSIC RACING

Rossi took third just two corners later, and Crutchlow managed to restart his bike and rejoin in eighth. Meanwhile, Lorenzo had extended his lead to six seconds at the front with Stoner a further four seconds ahead of Rossi.

With five laps to go Stoner was held up slightly by back marker Yonny Hernandez (BQR), allowing Rossi to get to within half a second of the World champion. Two laps later, Dovizioso crashed out of fourth trying to stay with them.

The last three laps were classics as old adversaries Stoner and Rossi swopped positions several times a lap, until Rossi, who looked back to his old self, passed Stoner in the first chicane on the last lap and pulled out just enough of a lead to secure second.

Lorenzo took the chequered flag to move into an eight-point lead at the top of the championship ahead of Stoner, who came home third. Pedrosa managed fourth, while Honda privateer Stefan Bradl recorded his best result in fifth, ahead of Rossi's team mate Nicky Hayden.

Dovizioso, who managed to re-join after crashing, finished seventh ahead of his team mate Crutchlow, with Ducati privateer Héctor Barberá and Honda rider Álvaro Bautista rounding out the top 1.

MOTO2

Tom Lüthi (Suter) put in a tremendous ride to take his first win of the season under difficult conditions in a dramatic Moto race.

Kalex rider Pol Espargaró got the best start as he stormed into the lead along with Scott Redding, also on a Kalex. The first chicane proved difficult as Simone Corsi was bucked off his FTR, followed by Yuki Takahashi (Suter), Randy Krummenacher (Kalex) and Speed Up rider Mike Di Meglio taking each other out a few corners later.

Espargaró was trying to pull away at the front, but Lüthi and Redding matched him corner for corner, with Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith and Gino Rea (Suter) in tow. Takahashi's team mate Alex de Angelis survived a scare as he slid back onto the track after crashing out, with the Moto2 pack doing very well to avoid the hitting him.

Just as Rea began making headway, Johann Zarco (Motobi) went up the inside, clipping Rea's front wheel and sending him into the gravel, putting a premature end to his first race on the new Suter chassis.

Meanwhile, Claudio Corti (Kalex) joined the front five, with Speed Up rider Andrea Iannone charging through the field as well.

With 17 laps to go, Espargaró ran wide, handing the lead to Lüthi and dropping into ninth. Smith also ran off the circuit but managed to re-join in 14th.

Championship leader Marc Márquez (Suter), who'd had a dreadful start, was battling his way up to the leading bunch, trying to get past rain-specialist Zarco.

Then Marquez went down and was unable to rejoin, and Zarco was able to challenge for a podium spot, soon pushing past Redding into second, followed by Corti, who pulled in a bold move on Redding.

With 13 laps to go, Lüthi had pulled out a lead of just over three seconds.

Di Meglio, who had re-joined the race after his early crash, lost control of his bike once again with nine laps to go, putting an end to his race. He was followed shortly by Corti’s team mate Takaaki Nakagami who had a high-speed crash heading into the back chicane.

With six laps left, Zarco had cut the lead to Lüthi to under a second, whilst Anthony West (Moriwaki) passed Julián Simón (Suter) for sixth. West's team mate Elena Rosell was not faring as well as the Australian, however, as she crashed out.

Then Zarco lost the back end of his bike as he continued to push hard in the wet, handing second to Corti and third to Redding. The main battle in the pack, meanwhile, was between Redding’s team mate Kallio, West, Espargaró, Simón and Smith for sixth, as they swopped positions on every lap.

The drama went right down to the line as Smith dropped his bike in the last corner – and picked it up to finish 10th! – while Simon's Suter picked up an electrical gremlin on the last lap and he pushed it across the line in 13th.

But it was Lüthi who put in a stunning ride to take the chequered flag ahead of Corti, who recorded his first ever podium, and Redding in third, notching up his first podium finish in 22 races.

MOTO3

Frenchman Louis Rossi, riding an FTR Honda, kept his nerve to take his first ever win in treacherous conditions in front of his home crowd.

In a race that started in extremely wet conditions, Maverick Viñales (FTR Honda) got away best, with KTM rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin also pulling a superb start from 10th into second.

There were crashes early on as South African rider Brad Binder (Kalex KTM) and Niklas Ajo (KTM) collided on lap one, followed shortly by Jonas Folger (Ioda) and local rider Alexis Masbou (Honda).

Kalex KTM riders Héctor Faubel and Luis Salom took over at the front as Viñales dropped off the pace slightly. With 18 laps to go, Faubel, Salom, Jakub Kornfeil (FTR Honda), Miguel Oliveira (Suter) and Viñales were involved in an superb battle for podium positions.

But with 11 laps to go there Faubel crashed out of the lead, with Kornfeil crashing out of third a few seconds later, handing the first three places to Oliveira, Viñales and Rossi. Half a lap later, Salom followed suit as he slid off into the gravel in ever worsening conditions.

MORE DRAMA AT THE FRONT

As a thrilling fight for fourth ensued between KTM rider Sandro Cortese and Khairuddin, there was more drama at the front, as the charging Oliveira crashed out of the lead, handing the front spot to Viñales, who was being hunted down by Rossi.

Then Viñales threw his FTR Honda up the road just a lap later in the final corner, followed shortly by Khairuddin, handing the lead to Rossi - along with a 20 second cushion between himself and Cortese and Alberto Moncayo (Kalex KTM) in second and third respectively.

Three laps before the end Cortese lost the front going into the first chicane, but managed to keep the bike going to rejoin in sixth, as Oliveira's team mate Alex Rins slipped into third with FTR Honda rider Niccolo Antonelli hard on his tail.

In the end it was Rossi who made the Le Mans grandstands cheer with delight as he took his first GP win by a margin of 28 seconds from Moncayo and Rins.

Antonelli could not quite challenge for the podium, finishing fourth in front of the KTM duo of Arthur Sissis and Cortese and FGR rider Jasper Iwema.

The next MotoGP will be on 3 June at Catalunya in Spain.

RESULTS – MOTOGP

1 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha - 49min39.743

2 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Ducati +9.905sec

3 Casey Stoner (Australia) Honda +11.298

4 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda +29.361

5 Stefan Bradl (Germany) Honda +32.477

6 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati +32.842

7 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Yamaha +59.759

8 Cal Crutchlow (Britain) Yamaha +1min05.152

9 Hector Barbera (Spain) Ducati +1min07.646

10 Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Honda +1min13.193

11 James Ellison (Britain) ART +1min26.663

12 Mattia Pasini (Italy) ART +1min27.633

13 Aleix Espargaro (Spain) ART +1 lap

14 Michele Pirro (Italy) FTR +1 lap

15 Yonny Hernandez (Colombia) BQR +1 lap

16 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha +1 lap

17 Chris Vermeulen (Australia) Suter +2 laps

18 Ivan Silva (Spain) BQR +2 laps

MOTO2

1 Thomas Luthi (Switzerland) Suter - 50min02.816

2 Claudio Corti (Italy) Kalex +6.354sec

3 Scott Redding (Britain) Kalex +12.162

4 Andrea Iannone (Italy) Speed Up +16.338

5 Mika Kallio (Finland) Kalex +19.278

6 Pol Espargaro (Spain) Kalex +20.874

7 Anthony West (Australia) Moriwaki +21.705

8 Max Neukirchner (Germany) Kalex +28.117

9 Ratthapark Wilairot (Thailand) Suter +38.317

10 Bradley Smith (Britain) Tech 3 +40.940

MOTO3

1 Louis Rossi (France) FTR Honda - 49min12.390

2 Alberto Moncayo (Spain) Kalex KTM +27.348

3 Alex Rins (Spain) Suter Honda +28.899

4 Niccolo Antonelli (Italy) FTR Honda +33.195

5 Arthur Sissis (Australia) KTM +36.989

6 Sandro Cortese (Germany) KTM +45.312

7 Jasper Iwema (Netherlands) FGR Honda +58.645

8 Alan Techer (France) TSR Honda +1min05.022

9 Ivan Moreno (Spain) FTR Honda +1min09.194

10 Giulian Pedone (Switzerland) Suter Honda +1min45.751

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