MotoGP: Miller wins chaotic French GP

On Lap 1, coming out of Turn 10, Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) then had a huge moment. The Spaniard stayed on but it gave Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and his teammate Franco Morbidelli a sniff. Trying to overtake at the inside of Turn 11, the door was closed on Morbidelli and the Italian ran wide, before crashing in the gravel. It caused Rossi and Pol Espargaro to lose places too, with Morbidelli able to re-join.

It was a frantic start. At the front, Miller, Quartararo and Viñales were your top three with fast-starting Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Marc Marquez inside the top five, as the rain started falling. It was light to begin with and Quartararo made a phenomenal two-in-one move on Viñales and Miller at Turn 3, but the rain then started to fall a lot heavier. On Lap 5, the heavens properly opened and it was time for the field to come into pitlane for their second bikes.

Miller ran wide at Turn 11 as the riders struggled to finish the lap on the asphalt. Slick tires and heavy rain don’t mix, and the reigning World Champion Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) found that out. Mir crashed on Lap 5 when the rain started bucketing down, as more drama followed in pitlane. Both Miller and teammate Bagnaia were handed two long-lap penalties for speeding in pitlane, Quartararo pulled into Viñales’ box slot by accident, with Marc Marquez emerging as the race leader.

Rins was second as the riders re-entered the track, but at Turn 4, the Spaniard was down. This left Marc Marquez and Quartararo clear of Miller at the front, but the eight-time World Champion was then down at the final corner. Unrelenting drama at Le Mans, Marc Marquez squandered his lead but the 93 did manage to get back on track. Now, Quartararo was the race leader again but Miller was rapidly closing in. As we know, the Australian had two long laps to take, he did so on Laps 9 and 10, before immediately closing the gap to Quartararo.

Marc Marquez crashed at Turn 6, his second of the race, and he was out on Lap 18. One thing to note: Miller and Quartararo had one soft Michelin rain tire on, Zarco was on the mediums. The mediums would last longer in these drying conditions as the wet tires started to overheat, and we saw Miller kick his right leg out on the front straight – was he signalling to get the dry bike ready? We didn’t know for now, but what we could see was Zarco reeling in Quartararo, the gap now 2.5s with seven to go.

Astonishingly, the sun was now shining in France. Zarco was once again 1.8s quicker than Quartararo, as Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol) and Danilo Petrucci (Tech3 KTM Factory Racing) got the better of Nakagami for P4 and P5 respectively. Bagnaia then overtook the Japanese rider with six to go, and further up the road, Zarco blasted past Quartararo on the home straight to take P2, seven seconds behind Miller. In turn, Quartararo had 12 seconds in his pocket to Alex Marquez.

Five to go. Ducati Lenovo Team Manager Davide Tardozzi was on pit wall to tell Miller that Zarco was hunting him. The track was dry now, but with four laps to go, there wasn’t time to come into pitlane, head back out and use the slick tire advantage – not for the leaders anyway. Miller was doing a cracking effort though, his lead was staying above the five second mark as Bagnaia climbed his way to P4.

Three to go. Miller’s lead was 4.9s, Zarco was holding Quartararo at bay by nearly seven seconds, with Bagnaia eight seconds off the final podium place in fourth. Heading onto Lap 26 of 27, the gap was down to 4.3s between the leading duo, Bagnaia was cutting the gap to Quartararo by nearly two seconds a lap.

LAST LAP AT LE MANS! It was Miller’s to lose, his advantage was still above the four second mark to Zarco. Quartararo’s gap to Pecco was 3.4s, so he too should comfortably – relatively speaking – hold onto a rostrum finish. No mistakes were made from the race leading Australian and after banishing the early season demons in Jerez, Miller now sits just 16 points away from the title lead.

Race Results