In a whirlwind twist of events that included the entire grid opting to swap bikes during the warm-up lap, changing weather conditions, and more drama during the sighting lap, Johann Zarco ultimately prevailed in front of his home crowd to take victory in the 2025 French MotoGP race.
- Zarco is the first French rider in 71 years to win on home soil
- Aldeguer scores back-to-back podiums
- Marc Marquez increases championship lead
2025 French GP: Drama before race start
While the Sprint race was a dry affair, the day of the main race was marred by consistent rain showers. The entire grid had come to their starting positions on dry slick tyres, but the warm-up lap (where polesitter Fabio Quartararo nearly crashed) saw every rider go back into the pits to change bikes shod with wet-weather racing tyres. That triggered the Quick Start procedure, and a wet race was declared with race direction reducing the number of laps to 26 – one less than before.
But that wasn’t all. While riders like Quartararo and the Marquez brothers pitted at the end of the sighting lap, Francesco Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi gambled and stayed on the grid.
2025 French GP: Chaotic opening laps
At the start of the race, Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini made contact, which led to the former ending up in the gravel trap. Eventual race winner Zarco was also pushed off track but managed to stay atop his LCR Honda. But since more than half the grid had to serve double long lap penalties on account of the bike changes, that threw off everyone’s position.
Once the dust settled, we had a very eclectic line-up of riders in the top 10. Johann Zarco ended up first, and for a brief number of laps, Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori was running third. Ultimately, the Marquez brothers dispensed with the long lap penalties, and Marc was second, while Alex was third.
2025 French GP: Unexpected podium finishers
However, Zarco’s decision to stick to a strategy – unlike other riders who made one or more bike swaps – meant he had a comfortable 12-second buffer to Marc Marquez once all the chaos settled down. You also need to account for the Frenchman’s consistent pace, as he kept increasing his lead over Marc Marquez.
While Alex Marquez was shadowing his brother for much of the race, a crash with just seven laps to go meant he dropped down the order. Pedro Acosta inherited the final spot on the podium, but rookie Fermin Aldeguer (Alex Marquez’s teammate) had far superior results. He followed up his Sprint Race podium with another P3 finish in the main race.
2025 MotoGP standings
With his second-place finish in the main race and his victory in the Sprint, Marc Marquez has established a dominant 22-point lead over his brother Alex and leads the standings. Bagnaia, while still third, now has a yawning 51-point deficit to his teammate Marquez. The next round will be held at the Silverstone circuit on May 23-25.
Autocar India News Desk
Unnatee Gidithuri
Suraj Viswanathan
