This weekend saw the return of The Martinator and an Aprilia podium lockout. It was a fantastic spectacle to behold.
The Karr report races us through…
Moto3:
When the Juniors crawled from their garages on Sunday, the air temperature was a balmy thirteen degrees Celsius, and the track was… a little wet.
A Wet Start was announced, which meant the following: The race would start five minutes later than scheduled, the riders had ten minutes for sighting Laps, and the race distance would be cut to two-thirds of the original twenty laps.
So, we were in for a thirteen-lap race, the riders seeing a wet track for the first time all weekend.
What was that? A recipe for disaster?
NEVER!
Pre-Sighting Laps and every marshal along the track donned their brooms and leaf blowers – top-class track drainage equipment – in order to get the surface at least a little drier. Some of them actually seemed disappointed when they were chased off so that the race could start.
The race started. Cue the mayhem!
Uriarte was the first rider down, slipping on the slippery track on the opening lap at Turn Two, but he managed to rejoin the race.
Moments after Uriarte, Muñoz went skidding out at Turn Three…
The Sparky Award goes to Buchanan who, still on Lap One, went sliding out of Turn Seven, somehow managing to draw out a neat tail of sparks over the wet track surface.
Lap Two had only one casualty in the shape of O’Gorman.
The Irishman tumbled into the pebbles for the fourth time this weekend with his bike’s fairing gaining a proper scrunching in the process.
On Lap Three, Perrone slid out at Turn Three, feverishly clinging to his left handlebar in a horizontal version of the classic Superman.
Remounting happened.
Kelso’s bike abandoned him at Turn Nine, taking the escape road in a bold attempt to, er, escape.
On Lap Three. Kelso slid off, then performed an interesting shoulder-assisted adaptation of a headstand.
Carraro ate gravel at the third corner on Lap Four when a few seconds later, Carpe’s bike snapped its rear, flinging him into the air.
For a split-second Carpe found himself surfing over the ground on his now-horizontal ride, but he was almost immediately ejected.
Although he managed to get back into the seat, Carpe had to cruise straight to the pits, where he sauntered into his garage in search of some spiked hot chocolate.
By Turn Thirteen on the same lap, Morelli joined the Sliding Crew. He allegedly also remounted afterwards.
Between all the slipping and sliding, two riders were caught cutting the course short at Turn Ten, and both of them were forced to complete one Long Lap Penalty trip as a result. These miscreants were Morelli and Cruces.
Having been the first crasher of the race, Uriarte rode on to crash a second time, this time on Lap Six, at Turn Three. By some miracle, he managed to remount again, AND score points in the end.
Hats off to you, Brian.
On the seventh lap, Salmela had an out-of-seat experience, but managed to not crash, though he was now more awake than he had been all day.
Also on Lap Seven, Ríos made the acquaintance of Turn Eight’s gravel trap.
When he went to pick up his bike from the dust, he noticed its fairings flapping in the wind like the tails of a ripped coat. He dropped it exasperatedly, and walked off.
Ogden made it to Lap Eight, when he toppled from his bike at Turn Three. This was followed by an amusingly awkward attempt at a remount.
After surviving his little incident a few laps earlier, Salmela won the Junior Crash of the Day with a stonker of a highside out of Turn Ten on the eighth lap.There he was, just trying to race, when his bike unexpectedly tried to kick him off again. When the first attempt failed, it punted him harder, finally dislodging Salmela from its back. The KTM was apparently so happy to be rider-free, it leapt and bounded through the gravel fields like Heidi across the Alps. Unlike Heidi, however, it was unable to get back up once it fell over. Salmela, meanwhile, managed to plant his feet mid-tumble, stopping his progress through the pebbles faster than a gunshot. It was impressive to watch. He reminded us of an anime character mid-battle.
Having avoided all the chaos by staying well ahead of it, Quiles claimed yet another victory with a lovely stand-up wheelie across the finish line. In fact, we got to see more riding on the rear wheel during his cooldown lap than we saw him on both.
Second place went the way of Fernández, while Bertelle finished in third.
Moodley’s race transpired unexcitingly, with the South African finishing seventeenth.
Moto2:
The Moto2 race started exactly like the Moto3 race before it: Wet race, ten-minute Sighting Laps, five-minute delay to race start. Race distance cut to two-thirds distance – in this case, fourteen laps.
One major difference was that the track wasn’t remotely as wet as it had been at the start of the preceding race, and thus all the riders ended up opting for the slick tyre setup.
It was apparently still a little chilly, as Vietti decided to go for a quick pre-race jog up pit lane, smiling happily the entire way, hair flowing in the wind like he was starring in a shampoo ad.
On the opening lap, Holgado’s bike tried to kick him out of the seat. When he held on successfully, it went in for a second punt – right in the nether regions. This time, the bike was successful and Holgado found himself tumbling through the kitty litter outside of Turn Seven, his bike making a run for it across the grass. It made it all of ten metres before it realised it needed a hand (pun intended) twisting the throttle in order to keep going…
Veijer fell off the Timing Tower on Lap Two.
In two Lap Two incidents which may have happened at the same time, on the same piece of track, but were entirely unlinked, Arbolino ran so wide that he grazed the edge of the gravel trap out of the final corner and set off the Yellow Flags. Navarro found himself partaking in a surprise rodeo session before being scraped out of his seat.His bike came to a standstill with its wheels against the pit wall. Hey, Navarro, if your Moto2 career tanks, there’s always rodeo…
Due to Navarro’s bike’s awkward position, the race got the Red Flag which piddled off González to the ninth degree.
A quick restart came into play, and the already-shortened race became even shorter, all riders (save for Navarro, who had to go to the Medical Centre for a check-up) lining up in their original grid positions for a nine-lap dash for cash.
Holgado caused a mild stir when he pulled up for the restart sans his front mudguard, but it was deemed acceptable. By now the race was officially declared dry.
This did not stop the mayhem from continuing as the bikes pulled off, and entered the first corner. Multiple riders got lost and ran off the track, each in their own trajectory, though none of them fell over…
By Turn Six, Baltus went sliding off at turn six. He got to his feet rapidly, gesticulating and cursing towards the disappearing pack of riders. He had obviously been helped off, and he knew who was to blame. So did Race Direction, because not much later Vietti was slapped with a Long Lap Penalty for taking Baltus out in a non-romantic fashion.
We also lost Huertas on that opening lap. But his crash was apparently too boring to replay.
While leaning into Turn Six, Veijer’s wheels lost touch with the tarmac, sending him on a slide during which his bike tried very hard to trip up Muñoz, pushing him off the track, through the gravel, and all the way to the wall. Much to Veijer’s bike’s dismay, Muñoz’s bike refused to fall over.
Sasaki lost his bike on Lap Four, and had to resort to walking away while glancing back forlornly at the track.
All crashes aside, there was a healthy amount of ‘rubbing-is-racing’ happening throughout this race. Some bikes might’ve even lost some bits in the confusion.
Guevara finished the race in the top spot.
Just like Quiles did, Guevara did a stand-up wheelie across the line. Copycat.
González, for all his fury at the Red Flag earlier, finished in second, and Ortolá managed to claim third.
MotoGP:
Jonas Folger made a guest appearance in France, filling in for the battle-damaged Viñales.
We honestly really dig Quartararo’s home-race livery that saw him covered in flowers and butterflies from his helmet to his toes. This included his Yamaha. We affectionately dubbed it ‘Fantaisie Florale’.
His hair, though. WTF, Fabio?? Is that even you?
Sprint Race:
While Di Giannantonio nearly took off from the grid – literally – Martín launched his Aprilia off the line as though it had a hidden set of jet engines strapped under his seat. It took him all of three corners to divebomb, shear, and round-the-outside his way into the lead and he never let it go. By the third lap, he had pulled out a lead of just over a second, and kept it there.
Replays of his three-corner antics abounded.
Both Marini and Folger came to grief on the second lap, but since nobody really cared about them, there were no replays, no further details. Did they take each other out? Were these separate incidents accidentally linked by timing? Was it a good date?
During the fourth lap, when exiting Turn Three and trying to aim into Turn Four, DiGi’s Ducati refused to do the left-to-right flip-flop, resulting in a butt-puckering slide across the path of his teammate Morbidelli. By some miracle, Morbidelli managed to avoid contact with the hapless DiGi and his bike.
On lap six, approaching a corner that could’ve been Turn Ten, or Eleven, Bastianini missed the track like a teenage driver on their cellphone, sending up plumes of dust in the background of the live camera coverage.
One lap later, Morbidelli’s luck ran out just as he leaned into Turn Thirteen. His motorcycle went horizontal, flying off into the kitty litter and leaving a dazed Frankie at the edge of the track.
Fernández crashed on the penultimate lap, but this was soon clean forgotten.
Why?
Well, near the end of the lap, upon approaching Turn Fourteen, Márquez – Marc here – fell victim to the Crash of the Weekend. It was spectacular – a crash that we are sure that Ducati would rather forget…
First, the front let go. Then, the rear seemed to bite into the tarmac. It was around this time Marc deemed it appropriate to try and use his right foot as a pogo stick-cum-brake – this was, unfortunately, not a very good idea.
The Ducati continued to buck like a mechanical bull that’d contracted mad cow disease until it finally managed to dislodge Marc from its seat, sending both rider and machine skyward before they executed a near-perfect synchronised headbutting of the track surface.
This was not the end of it. After the headbutting, Marc flailed off the track, his Ducati hurtling after him like a murderous, spiky rolling pin of doom. Small miracle it never actually managed to catch him before running out of momentum and dying in a heap of mangled bike-bits, its one tyre now sitting perpendicular to the rim it’d been firmly affixed to moments earlier.
Later, Marc was seen alighting from a scooter-taxi behind his box, gingerly, then hobbling into the garage with some assistance. It was later confirmed that Marc would not partake in the main race or be on track for next weekend’s Catalan action, due to a broken toe on his right foot.
To be honest, we think he got off rather lightly there.
Meanwhile, Martín crossed the line, claiming a record eighteenth Sprint Race win. Bagnaia made up the Ducati filling in the Aprilia sandwich by taking second, and Bezzecchi finished off the sandwich in third.
Brad Binder managed to claw his way up to twelfth, after starting the race just about at the back of the grid.
Approaching the grid-podium-parc-fermé area, Martín treated fans to a top class stoppie. After the podium formalities, he escaped the taped-up area – Prosecco in hand – almost as fast as he’d escaped the start. What fun!
Main Race:
Don’t for one second think that this would be a boring race because it was the only race declared dry from the start.
Toprak’s Yamaha blew its engine to smoky oblivion during his Sighting Lap, forcing the Turk to collect his second bike – which had to be stripped to a skeleton on the grid in order to get the wet-race rubbers off of it in time for the start.
At least it wasn’t alone – a few other machines stood wheelless on the grid as (mostly front) tyres were feverishly swapped out.
As we neared the start of the Warm Up Lap, it began dripping ever so gently.
This did not, in the end, translate into torrential downpours.
Blimey! We saw an incident-free first lap!
The most interesting thing on Lap One was the spark-trail Bezzecchi was tossing at the riders behind him as he went through Turn One. It did make for an epic-looking slow-motion replay.
Never fear, though: as Lap Two commenced, Márquez – Álex, obviously – went sliding off with his Ducati short on his heels. In the gravel, Álex seemed either stuck under his bike, or in intense pain. Perhaps both.
During Lap Eleven, a very scuffed-up Moreira was spotted scoffing at the ground, bikeless.
The Ducati factory team’s weekend degenerated from ‘miff’ to ‘FFS’ when Bagnaia slid out of Turn Two – and second place – on the sixteeth lap.
The whole team upped and left to find a spot that served drinks a little stronger than wine.
Mir’s race ended in the dust somewhere along Lap Twenty.
During Lap Twenty-One, Binder executed a proper bike-shredding tumble-exit at the seventh corner.
Morbidelli was soon told to drop one position for causing contact.
Now for the comeback story of the season:
Martín, not repeating his insane shoot to the front from the Sprint Race, steadily worked his way through the pack, and with five laps left on the counter, caught up to Bezzecchi.
At this point, Bezzecchi probably thought he had this win in the bag, with a near-racelong lead of close to a second or more.
To be fair, nobody but a true psychic could’ve predicted that, in another two laps, Martín would be cutting down the inside of his teammate to snatch the lead. It was a masterclass in riding skill and a well-deserved Rider of the Race winner.
Martín claimed his first main race victory since Mandalika in 2024, leaving a disbelieving Bezzecchi in second.
Ogura held on to third, making him the first rider to come through the Asia Cup Talent program to stand on a MotoGP podium.
Watch this youngster he has some skills.
In true Martín fashion, Jorge did a screen-delete the moment he was beyond the checkered flag, after which he stood on his footpegs, crossing his arms in front of his – very – swollen chest.
Later, during his Parc Fermé interview, Martín went on to thank everyone, including his girlfriend, and the family dog.
One more thing: We saw the first podium lockout ever by Aprilia in MotoGP.
Good show!
The Le Mans round of 2026 was arguably one of the most entertaining weekends thus far. Please, sir, may we have more?
~ Karr
