2013 Le Mans MotoGP | Results

2013 MotoGP Championship Results

Spoiler Alert: 2013 MotoGP results from Le Mans, France, listed below

There’s a new crop of “aliens” in the MotoGP Championship, and they are all from Spain.

Following the first three rounds of the 2013 MotoGP Championship, the only non-Spaniard rider to finish on a podium was Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi.

The Italian finished second at the opening round in Qatar. But besides that, three Spanish riders have reigned – the defending MotoGP Champion, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and the rookie’s teammate, Dani Pedrosa.

Lorenzo won round 1 at Qatar, Marquez round 2 at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, and Pedrosa round 3 at Jerez.

And as the series headed to the iconic Le Mans Bugatti Circuit in France this weekend for round four of 18 in 2013 MotoGP, these three Spaniards were the favorites.

But things changed significantly due to slick conditions from the rain at the 2.579-circuit, which joined the World Championship in 1969, the year Giacomo Agostini lapped every rider in the field to take the win for MV Agusta.

This didn’t stop one Spaniard, though. After swapping the lead numerous times with Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso, Pedrosa took his second consecutive win.

He finished 4.863 ahead of Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow, which was the Brit’s best finish ever in MotoGP. Taking the final podium position after a falling back as far as eighth was Marquez.

When the 28-lap race got underway, Dovi took the holeshot, heading into turn one ahead of Lorenzo, Pedrosa, LCR Honda’s Bradl, Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone and Rossi. The pole man Marquez took a cautious start, starting in eighth.

Middway through the first lap, Rossi, who took two podiums at Le Mans while struggling on the Ducati, had taken both Iannone and Hayden. By the start of lap two, the nine-time World Champion who qualified eighth was into fourth.

Up front, Dovi had almost a second on Lorenzo, who was battling with the man who suffered a huge crash in qualifying en route to his sixth-place start, Pedrosa.

With 26 to go, Pedrosa slipped pass Lorenzo for second, while Rossi continued to close the gap on the lead group. Pedorsa put immediate pressure on Dovizioso, eventually taking the lead on the back straight during lap 24.

While Dovizioso and Pedrosa exchanged the lead, Lorenzo lost three spots, allowing Rossi to grab third.

Behind Rossi was the man who was posting the quickest lap times, Crutchlow, and the 2006 MotoGP Champion Hayden.

Lorenzo continued to struggle, and with 19 to go, Bradl also got pass, placing the two-time MotoGP Champion into seventh. Behind Lorenzo, Marquez was making up ground, the rookie soon posting the quickest lap of the race.

Up front, Pedrosa and Dovi continued to pass, the Spaniard making a daring pass on Dovi midway through the corner leading into the back straight. Behind, Rossi was holding off a charging Crtuchlow, and Hayden was stalking alone in fifth.

Dovi retaliated, but Pedrosa was back into the lead by the start of lap 14. The Spaniard began pulling away as skinny dry line began to form, allowing the riders to carry more speed through the corners.

Behind, Marquez, took Lorenzo for seventh, and Hayden was all over the rear Bridgestone of Rossi. Next to take Lorenzo was GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista.

With nine to go, two riders crashed out – Bradl and Rossi. Bradl lost the front, and was able to rejoin the race. As for Rossi, he crashed while battling with Hayden in fourth.

The Ducati rider did an amazing job standing his bike up and getting hard on the brakes to avoid crashing into Rossi. Rossi would return, though, and finish 12th.

By this time, Pedrosa almost had five seconds on Dovi, who was under much pressure from Crutchlow. Unfortunately, Dovi made a mistake on the GP13, suffering a rear slide, allowing Crutchlow into second. Behind, Marquez took fourth from Hayden.

As Crutchlow pulled away, Marquez chased down Dovi and made a clean pass on the drying line with two to go.

The grid would finish this way up front. Pedrosa won by 4.863 seconds ahead of Crutchlow, and 6.949 seconds ahead of Marquez.

Dovi finished fourth, followed by Hayden, which were the highest-placed finishes for Ducati so far this year. Sixth went to Bautista, who finished ahead of Lorenzo and Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati’s Michele Pirro, who is substituting for the injured Ben Spies.

Rounding out the top 10 were Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith and LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl. The top CRT honors once again went to Power Electronics Aspar ART’s Aleix Espargaro. The Spaniard has been the top CRT finishing in every round so far.

With his win, Pedrosa holds the championship lead with 83 points, six ahead of Marquez. Lorenzo is third, 10 points behind Marquez. Marquez is in fourth with 55 points, and Rossi fifth with 47.

The 2013 MotoGP Championship will break for two weeks ahead of round five at Mugello for the Grand Prix of Italy.

2013 Le Mans MotoGP Results:

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	142.6	49’17.707
2	20	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	142.3	+4.863
3	16	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	142.2	+6.949
4	13	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	142.1	+10.087
5	11	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	141.7	+18.471
6	10	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	GO&FUN Honda Gresini	Honda	141.4	+23.561
7	9	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	141.2	+27.961
8	8	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Ignite Pramac Racing	Ducati	140.6	+40.775
9	7	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	140.6	+41.407
10	6	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	139.7	+1’00.995
11	5	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Energy T.I. Pramac Racing	Ducati	139.5	+1’05.110
12	4	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Yamaha Factory Racing	Yamaha	139.0	+1’16.368
13	3	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	138.6	+1’24.200
14	2	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda-Suter	138.6	+1’25.726
15	1	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	ART	138.3	+1’32.111
16		5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR Kawasaki	137.9	+1’40.602
17		70	Michael LAVERTY	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	PBM	136.9	1 Lap
18		8	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Avintia Blusens	FTR	136.0	1 Lap
19		7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Avintia Blusens	FTR	136.0	1 Lap
Not Classified
		68	Yonny HERNANDEZ	COL	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART	136.5	8 Laps
		14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	Power Electronics Aspar	ART	137.7	13 Laps
		52	Lukas PESEK	CZE	Came IodaRacing Project	Ioda-Suter	133.2	13 Laps
		71	Claudio CORTI	ITA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR Kawasaki	132.4	21 Laps
		67	Bryan STARING	AUS	GO&FUN Honda Gresini	FTR Honda	121.4	27 Laps

2013 MotoGP Point Standings (after four of 18 rounds):

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Nation	Points
1	Dani PEDROSA	Honda	SPA	83
2	Marc MARQUEZ	Honda	SPA	77
3	Jorge LORENZO	Yamaha	SPA	66
4	Cal CRUTCHLOW	Yamaha	GBR	55
5	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	ITA	47
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	Ducati	ITA	39
7	Alvaro BAUTISTA	Honda	SPA	38
8	Nicky HAYDEN	Ducati	USA	35
9	Aleix ESPARGARO	ART	SPA	20
10	Andrea IANNONE	Ducati	ITA	18
11	Stefan BRADL	Honda	GER	17
12	Bradley SMITH	Yamaha	GBR	17
13	Michele PIRRO	Ducati	ITA	13
14	Ben SPIES	Ducati	USA	9
15	Hector BARBERA	FTR	SPA	7
16	Randy DE PUNIET	ART	FRA	6
17	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ioda-Suter	ITA	4
18	Michael LAVERTY	PBM	GBR	3
19	Yonny HERNANDEZ	ART	COL	3
20	Karel ABRAHAM	ART	CZE	1
21	Colin EDWARDS	FTR Kawasaki	USA	1
22	Hiroshi AOYAMA	FTR	JPN	1