LE MANS, France (Reuters) -Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini claimed his third win of the season with a superb performance at the French Grand Prix on Sunday as world champion and home favourite Fabio Quartararo came fourth.
Italian Bastianini finished ahead of Ducati’s Jack Miller at Le Mans, celebrating another win after victories in Austin and Qatar.
Pole sitter Francesco Bagnaia lost his top spot to team mate Miller on the opening but soon regained the position and held on for 20 laps.
Bastianini, who started fifth, took the lead on the 21st lap after Bagnaia ran off-track at turn eight before crashing out.
Quartararo, who started fourth on his Yamaha, slipped four places on the opening lap but the Frenchman moved up and Bagnaia’s crash put him in reach of a podium spot.
But Frenchman Quartararo could not close the gap on Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro who finished third.
Johann Zarco, the other local favourite, finished fifth and six-times MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez came sixth on his Repsol Honda after starting 10th.
Suzuki, who announced this week that they intend to leave MotoGP at the end of the year, had a bad day as both Alex Rins and 2020 champion Joan Mir crashed and failed to finish the race.
Quartararo retained his lead in the championship, sitting on 102 points, four ahead of Espargaro. Bastianini is third, eight points behind Quartararo.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
