Casey Stoner scored his second win of the season with a victory in the French MotoGP at Le Mans.

Stoner took an early lead in the race and was hotly followed by Dani Pedrosa, who looked to be trying the same tactics that he used on Jorge Lorenzo in Estoril – i.e. follow close behind before making a late break.

It wasn’t until later on in the race that Pedrosa started to drop off Stoner and was quickly caught up by Marco Simoncelli. On lap 17 Simoncelli had started fighting Pedrosa for second position with both riders exchanging places. A tasty battle looked to be brewing until a collision took place when Simoncelli tried to overtake Pedrosa on the outside of a left-hand turn. Pedrosa looked to be boxed in and made contact with the rear of Simoncelli’s bike and crashed into the dirt.

Pedrosa broke his right collar-bone in the incident and Simoncelli was given a ride through penalty that dropped him out of podium contention and he was left to fight hard for a 5th place finish.

Valentino Rossi claimed his first podium for Ducati with a third place finish, after coming off second best in a duel with Andrea Dovizioso who took second place.

There was bad news for the Pramac Ducati team once again as both Capirossi and De Puniet crashed out. Tech 3 suffered similar fortunes, with Crutchlow and Edwards both suffering crashes also.

MotoGP Race Results – Le Mans

1. Casey Stoner Honda 44m03.955s
2. Andrea Dovizioso Honda + 14.214s
3. Valentino Rossi Ducati + 14.564s
4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha + 21.075s
5. Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda + 31.245s
6. Ben Spies Yamaha + 31.609s
7. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 35.566s
8. Hiroshi Aoyama Gresini Honda + 51.502s
9. Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati + 1m03.731s
10. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati + 1m03.885s
11. Toni Elias LCR Honda + 1m04.068s
12. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki + 1m04.192s
13. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 2 laps

Retirements:

Loris Capirossi Pramac Ducati 21 laps
Dani Pedrosa Honda 17 laps
Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 6 laps
Randy de Puniet Pramac Ducati 1 lap

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