The Repsol Honda Team achieved their best result of the season so far. Alex Marquez impressed with second place from 18th place on the grid when Stefan Bradl made it into a double top ten.
It was another cold start in France for the tenth round of the MotoGP World Championship. Forecasts had predicted it would stay dry throughout, but the French skies had other ideas just moments before the lights went out. If the rain started late on the grid, the race was declared wet and the entire field was switched to wet tires. The race track was shortened by one lap.
With only the first practice session on Friday as a real wet experience on a MotoGP bike, Alex Marquez shot forward from 18th place on the grid and made up eight places in just a few laps. Alex adjusted to his rhythm and measured the conditions. He got faster and faster and was a full second faster than the leaders during the entire race. At this rate, the rookie cut through the field and passed Dovizioso and Crutchlow as he got closer and closer to the podium.
On lap 20, Alex drove to third place and it only took five laps to get past Dovizioso into second place. The gap to the eventual race winner Petrucci turned out to be too big. Alex Marquez crossed the finish line in front of an enthusiastic Repsol Honda team. With 47 points, Alex jumps to 14th place in the championship and is now 15 points behind Binder in the Rookie of the Year championship.
Stefan Bradl returned to the points and the top ten with an impressive drive. The German made an incredible start to moving through the field on the first few laps as well. After abandoning the wet FP1 session, Bradl stayed calm in the middle of the race to understand the conditions and stormed forward on the final laps. In a strong final lap, the HRC test driver overtook Quartararo and took eighth place.
The MotoGP paddock is now doing two short races to Aragon over the next two weeks. Back-to-back races have been positive so far for Alex Marquez, the rookie who was able to make the most of the time on track to improve in game two.