Johann Zarco became the first home rider in 71 years to win the French Grand Prix, delighting a sellout crowd of more than 120,000 fans at Le Mans.
The LCR Honda rider’s decision to start with wet tyres paid off handsomely on Sunday as Zarco triumphed in a chaotic, rain-hit race. He won by a huge margin of nearly 20 seconds from Ducati’s Marc Márquez, while Gresini Racing’s Fermín Aldeguer came third for his firstMotoGPpodium place.
Zarco was 17th on lap one when he narrowly avoided a collision and lost places as he went off track. But as confusion and chaos reigned, with several riders changing bikes multiple times, the Frenchman slowly made his way through the field before taking the lead and never looking back.
The 34-year-old is the first Frenchman to win at the iconic circuit since Pierre Monneret in 1954 and he celebrated by performing a backflip in front of the grandstand as fans chanted his name.
Hopes had been high for a French winner before the race, with Fabio Quartararo starting on pole – but the 2021 world champion crashed on the final corner of lap four, clearing the way for a less likely home hopeful. Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Honda’s Joan Mir also went out of the race early after colliding at turn three.
“Hard to believe, I still don’t understand what is happening,” Zarco said. “The last laps, they were quite long. I think I need a bit of time but it’s just magic because with the rain tyres at the beginning, we had to control.”
“Crazy race, especially the first part,” said Marc Márquez. “But Johan was faster today … I pushed for two laps, I saw that he was faster, even increased the distance. So then I just tried to control [my pace].”
Zarco’s victory also ended Ducati’s winning streak in MotoGP at 22 races as Honda took a rare win. Marc Márquez tops the overall standings with 171 points, 22 clear of his younger brother Álex, who crashed out while sitting in third place. Zarco moves up to sixth in the title race after just the second grand prix win of his career.