Jorge Lorenzo retook the MotoGP championship lead after winning a wet and exciting race at Le Mans, while Valentino Rossi defeated Casey Stoner in an epic last-lap battle to take his best ever finish with Ducati in second.
Having finally broken clear of Tech 3’s Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow, Rossi began to rapidly close down the gap to Stoner until he was all over the Australian’s back with five laps remaining. Rossi dived down the inside of Stoner on the last lap to snatch 2nd place away from him.
Lorenzo was never troubled thanks to an aggressive opening lap which gave him a near-two second advantage. He pulled away further as the race progressed.
Both Dovizioso and Crutchlow fell while trying to stay with Rossi, but were able to get back up and finished seventh and eighth respectively.
Their falls promoted Pedrosa to fourth, LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl into fifth and Rossi’s Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden into sixth.
Hector Barbera and Alvaro Bautista wrapped up the top 10 in 9th and 10th respectively.
1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 49m39.743s 2. Valentino Rossi Ducati + 9.905s 3. Casey Stoner Honda + 11.298s 4. Dani Pedrosa Honda + 29.361s 5. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda + 32.477s 6. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 32.842s 7. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha + 59.759s 8. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha + 1m05.152s 9. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati + 1m07.846s 10. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda + 1m13.193s 11. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia + 1m26.663s 12. Mattia Pasini Speed Master Aprilia + 1m27.633s 13. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia + 1 lap 14. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda + 1 lap 15. Yonny Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki + 1 lap 16. Ben Spies Yamaha + 1 lap 17. Chris Vermeulen Forward Suter-BMW + 2 laps 18. Ivan Silva Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki + 2 laps