Aleix Espargaró narrows the siege of Quartararo with his podium at Le Mans

MADRID, May 15. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Italian rider Enea Bastianini (Ducati) has claimed victory in the MotoGP race of the French Grand Prix, the seventh round of the Motorcycle World Championship, ahead of the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati) and the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), who With his third place, he is only four points behind the leadership of Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).

With his third win of the year, ‘The Beast’ reaches 94 units in the general standings, still dominated by the rider from Nice (102), who was fourth in a race in which he tried to avoid the podium of the older Espargaró ( 98).

In a day of record attendance at Le Mans, where more than 110,000 spectators crowded to witness the day of racing, the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati) took command of the premier class event after the ‘poleman’ Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) was somewhat behind at the start.

After ‘Pecco’, which a few laps later returned the pass to the ocean, the Spaniard Àlex Rins (Suzuki) made a great start to climb from seventh to third place, although his race was ruined after his bike went long in turn 4 during lap four.

Above, the two Ducati Lenovo Team bikes managed to open a gap on the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Joan Mir (Suzuki), who definitively said goodbye to his options when he crashed with 13 laps to go. Also Jorge Martín (Ducati), ten laps from the end, ended up in the gravel.

A fall also ended the tense head fight between Bastianini and Bagnaia. With seven laps to go, ‘The Beast’ overtook the then leader, although he managed to regain his position. However, a lap later ‘Pecco’ went down and left on a plate the third win of the year for his compatriot.

Behind Bastianini and Miller, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) clenched his teeth so as not to be hunted by the championship leader, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), hungry for a podium and anxious not to see how the Granollers man took points away from him. the overall. However, the Catalan resisted.

For his part, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) finished sixth, Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) did so tenth, ahead of Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda), and Àlex Márquez (Honda) was fourteenth in a race in which only 17 riders finished . Rins, Mir, Martín and Raúl Fernández (KTM) failed to finish.