Marco Bezzecchi of Mooney VR46 Racing Team gave 278,000 spectators an unforgettable race, taking his second MotoGP victory of the season. He is now one point behind the Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia in the World Championship. Marco Bezzecchi started third on the grid, with the Honda of Marc Marquez taking second and Bagnaia taking the pole position.
The SHARK Grand Prix de France winner had this to say after being 7th in the sprint.
“Well, it’s good to be close to Pecco for the moment. But honestly, I’m still not thinking about the championship. First of all, we saw having the sprint and the main GP on the same weekend, it’s very easy to lose everything very quickly. So, I just want to continue like this, thinking weekend by weekend, race by race, enjoying my bike with the guys [in the team] who are fantastic.”
It was all smiles for the Pramac Racing Team who bagged double podium finishes with Jorge Martin taking second place. Johann Zarco, the home favorite, secured the third position.
Opening Race Lap Drama
A disappointing start from Francesco Bagnaia saw him diminish his advantage into the first corner after Marc Marquez took an early lead. In the fourth lap, the KTM of Jack Miller passed Marquez to lead the race. The fifth lap saw Bagnaia collide with the Aprilia of Maverick Vinales removing the pair from the race.
After a lap, Alex Marquez had a near miss after an awful collision with Luca Marini. However, both riders came out of it unharmed. Jack Miller and Marc Marquez found it difficult to pull away, and on the tenth lap, Marco Bezzecchi took the lead of the race. He managed to create a reasonable gap behind him as Marc Marquez tried to defend his position from Jorge Martin in the closing race stages.
Marquez Crashes Out
Marc Marquez seemed to have everything under control following his recovery from hand surgery. Nevertheless, with just two laps remaining, he crashed out at the Le Musee hairpin giving up his position to Martin. Johann Zarco quickly took the third position where he finished the race.
“It’s a shame we didn’t receive any good results with all the hard work we did. We crashed with one lap and a half remaining. But I was riding in a very good way. It was a long time ago that I was feeling like this myself – not with the bike. But I prefer to lose a race like this and not to finish in 10th position. I enjoyed it, but we need to keep working to improve for the future.” said Marquez
Bagnaia Championship
Marco Bezzecchi crossed the line with a 4.2 seconds gap from Jorge Martin to take the chequered flag. The Championship points are 94 with Bagnaia leading. He, however, did not hide his frustrations, especially with Bezzecchi being 1 point behind him.
“I don’t know what happened. Honestly, I did, I don’t know how many laps this weekend, maybe 80 or 100, pushing, controlling, understanding everything, I lost the front all weekend and then in the race, when I was fully in control, I crashed. So I’m very angry, not with myself, because today I’m 100% sure it wasn’t my fault today”.
Don’t forget to catch the Italian Grand Prix which will be held on 11th June 2023 at 15:00 GMT on all motorsports channels.
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