Sergio García dominated the French GP at Le Mans! From the start, the MT Helmets – MSI rider took the lead of the race and was in the lead from the very beginning, with confirmation in the last seconds that his teammate, Ai Ogura, would accompany him on the podium, in second place. Alonso López almost threw it all away with two mistakes at the end.
Everything was set for the start of the intermediate class GP, with the front row composed of Arón Canet, Joe Roberts, and Sergio García.
García had a tremendous start and quickly began to pull away from the competition, with Roberts in pursuit and Manuel González in third position after gaining three places at the start. Alonso López was fourth and Albert Arenas fifth.
The pole sitter, Canet, was seventh and had the fastest lap on track while García led the events with 0.916s after a couple of laps. López then passed González to become the new third-place rider, moments before Barry Baltus crashed.
Canet was on the rise, now in fifth place and once again with the fastest lap, in 1:35.818s, quickly moving up to fourth position. González was fifth.
Zonta vd Goorbergh crashed at turn 8 but stayed on track, while Canet once again gained a position and moved up to third with a brilliant move over López. Shortly after, unexpectedly, González crashed at turn 14 while in fifth position!
The fight for second place was super intense and with a protagonist in the spotlight, guess who? None other than: Canet was the new second place.
It's aaaall going on 🤯
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 12, 2024
A fantastic battle for the podium places between Canet, @Joerobertsracer and @AlonsoLopez_21 ⚔️#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/MwuCIFi0Cu
García was leading but saw his lead drop half a second in the space of a couple of laps, from 1.9s to 1.4s.
This was the top ten with the race halfway through:
Diogo Moreira was another casualty in the race, with the Brazilian retiring due to problems with his bike. García led with 1.788s over Canet, with #44 in turn having 1.382s over López.
A little further back but still fueling hopes of reaching the podium spots were Ai Ogura and Fermín Aldeguer:
Some new names come into play for the podium 📈
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 12, 2024
Some potentially important overtakes from @AiOgura79 and @Aldeguer54 🔄#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/WsIixnxe4r
The race was rapidly approaching its end but there were still seven laps to go. This was the top ten, in this order: García, Canet, López, Roberts, Ogura, Somkiat Chantra, Aldeguer, Albert Arenas, Tony Arbolino, and Izan Guevara.
Xavier Artigas crashed and joined Baltus as the riders out of the race. Moreira, who had stopped due to bike problems, returned to action and was behind González who, despite also crashing, continued his battle.
In this “Last Chance League,” Daniel Muñoz was one lap behind, Zonta vd Goordergh two, as well as González, and Moreira had three.
Ogura continued his climb in the race and had just overtaken Roberts to reach fourth place. Roberts was mathematically out of the championship lead, which was temporarily held by García.
The intensity that Canet put on track early on could spell trouble and the truth is that #44 was indeed overtaken by López: Canet was being slower than usual, probably due to some extra tire wear and in an instant the situation became even more complicated.
López made a mistake and was too fast and to get back on the ideal racing line he had to brake, allowing Canet, Ogura, Roberts, and Chamtra to close in, with Chamtra fighting for second place, with two laps to go.
López again, made another mistake and Ogura took advantage and overtook, with the race ending shortly after and MT Helmets – MSI securing a 1-2!
García was the winner, Ogura second, and López third.
Also worth mentioning Boscoscuro, with three bikes in the top three. Kalex, with 12 years of always achieving podiums, saw that streak end today.
