French MotoGP report: Marquez secures Honda’s 300th win

Marc Marquez has further extended his championship lead after winning the 2019 French GP at Le Mans to clinch a landmark 300th premier class victory for Honda.

The start of the race saw polesitter Marquez and Danilo Petrucci running side-by-side into Turn 3, with Marquez just edging ahead. Soon after, Jack Miller was able to overtake Petrucci – who dropped down to 5th place – and then set his sights on Marquez, passing the Honda rider on lap 5 at Turn 3. But Marquez was able to re-take the lead after sweeping down the inside of Miller at Turn 6, just two laps later. From there on, he remained firmly in control of the race out at the front.

By the half-way point, Ducati’s Andrea Doviziso had caught up with Miller, having dropped to 7th place earlier in the opening laps. He took advantage of Miller running wide at Turn 7 to move up to 2nd. However, by then, Marquez had already established a 3 second lead. Behind him, Petrucci has made his way up the order and moved up to 3rd place after passing Miller. With just five laps to go, Petrucci attempted to overtake his Ducati team-mate, but Dovizioso was able to hold on to his position as Petrucci ran wide. The two continued to battle it out over the last few laps, but Dovizioso was able to fend off Petrucci to take 2nd place.

Miller finished 4th after holding off Valentino Rossi in a late-race scrap. Behind them, Pol Espargaro finished the race in 6th place, handing the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team its best result of the season so far. The Petronas Yamaha SRT duo of Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo took 7th and 8th place, respectively, with Cal Crutchlow and Alex Rins rounding off the top 10.

Francesco Bagnaia, Maverick Viñales, Takaaki Nakagami, Andrea Iannone and Tito Rabat all retired from the race. Karel Abraham and Joan Mir crashed on the warm-up lap in separate incidents. Mir was able to get back to the pits and join the race, finishing in 16th place. However, Abraham was black-flagged for coming out of the pit lane after the leader had crossed the line on the first lap.

Result: