Photography by Gold & Goose
Jorge Lorenzo took a dominating victory in round five of the 2015 MotoGP Championship in front of 93,531 enthusiastic French fans at Le Mans. Lorenzo led all 28 laps en route to his second straight victory. Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi worked his way up through the field to finish second, 3.820-seconds back. Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso was third, 8.56 seconds behind the leader.
The win was Lorenzo’s 35th-career MotoGP victory and his fourth at Le Mans.
One of the stories of the race was defending champion Marc Marquez finishing off the podium and in fact needing a late-race surge to get by Bradley Smith and Andrea Iannone to finish fourth. Marquez seemingly had issues under braking, running his Honda wide several times during the race.
As a result of the French GP Rossi now leads the championship by 15 points over Lorenzo (102-87), who with his victory moved past Dovizioso in the rankings. Dovi is now third with 83 points.
“I had a very good start,” Lorenzo said. “In the first corner I could overtake Dovizioso by the outside so I could stay in the leadership. It has been hard always a one second gap between me and Andrea, but then finally in a little bit I saw Valentino in second place. He really was very quick so I have to push even at the maximum, knowing that the front tire was close in from the beginning, but with my riding style I could survive and finish the race with another victory. Very important for the championship, so I’m very satisfied.”
Nicky Hayden had his best outing of 2015, finishing 11th on his Aspar Honda to earn the top Open Class honors. He ran inside the top 10 during the early parts of the race, but was passed by Suzuki factory rider Maverick Vinales, to move him back to 11th.
It was a hectic start with Dovizioso getting into the first turn in the lead, but Lorenzo and Marquez were taking dives in the first few turns, Marquez coming from fourth to first before running wide. It finally settled out a bit as the lap progressed with Lorenzo leading Dovi, Iannone, Marquez and Rossi.
Dani Pedrosa, returning to the series after arm-pump surgery, fell early in turn four. He got back on his Repsol Honda and was back on track. He eventually finished 16th. Stefan Bradl was also out early. Aleix Espargaro pitted early with some issue on his factory Suzuki. Scott Redding crashed out.
Up front Lorenzo established a small gap over Dovizioso. Iannone was third. Rossi dived inside Marquez on lap three to take over fourth.
On lap five Marquez made a mistake ran wide in a turn and dropped to sixth behind Bradley Smith.
Six laps in and the leading quartet of Lorenzo, Dovi, Iannone and Rossi had separated themselves from the rest of the field.
Crutchow crashed out of seventh, losing the front end out on the downhill right-hander turn six.
On lap 10 the crowd came to life when Rossi moved past Iannone in the esses in a classic move to take third – Iannone riding bravely, still recovering from a separated left shoulder. Now Rossi turned his attention to the next Ducati rider Dovizioso. He knew it was time to make a move if he was to have any chance to catch his Yamaha teammate Lorenzo, who was controlling the pace at the front.
Rossi made his move at turn 13 on lap 14 to get by Dovi and into second. Lorenzo was about 1.8 seconds up the road at that point. Rossi tried, but was unable to close the gap on the leader.
Jack Miller, Moto3 winner in France last year, crashed out unhurt at the halfway point.
In the end the biggest battle was over fourth with Iannone trying to hold off Smith and Marquez. For Marquez he needed to get fifth or better to keep from having the worst finish, absent a crash, of his MotoGP career. In the last five laps Marquez moved up to the front of that battling trio. For a couple of laps he and Iannone had an epic battle, swapping places several times a lap before Marquez finally subdued the Ducati rider.
The series next moves to Mugello, Italy on May 31.
French MotoGP Result from Le Mans, May 17, 2015
1. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 43m 44.143s
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 43m 47.963s
3. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 43m 56.523s
4. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 44m 4.033s
5. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 44m 4.380s
6. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 44m 5.288s
7. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 44m 19.636s
8. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.2) 44m 23.744s
9. Maverick Viñales ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 44m 25.714s
10. Danilo Petrucci ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.1) 44m 26.932s
11. Nicky Hayden USA Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) 44m 37.779s
12. Loris Baz FRA Athina Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 44m 44.760s
13. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) 44m 48.415s
14. Eugene Laverty IRL Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) 44m 49.402s
15. Alvaro Bautista ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 44m 49.658s
16. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 45m 5.050s
17. Alex De Angelis RSM Octo IodaRacing (ART) 45m 5.806s
18. Marco Melandri ITA Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) +1 lap
Jack Miller AUS CWM LCR Honda (RC213V-RS) DNF
Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RC213V-RS) DNF
Cal Crutchlow GBR CWM LCR Honda (RC213V) DNF
Scott Redding GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) DNF
Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) DNF
Aleix Espargaro ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) DNF
Stefan Bradl GER Athina Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) DNF
