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Jorge Lorenzo has won back to back races in the 2015 Moto GP season with a win at the French Grand Prix in Jerez.
After leading into the first corner of the race, Lorenzo was never threatened, as he won his 35th race in the Premier Class.
The win also moves the Spaniard to second in the championship as he closes the gap to 19 points over his team-mate Valentino Rossi.
Rossi would finish second in the race with Andrea Dovizioso finishing in third.
Pole sitter, Marc Marquez, would finish fourth with Andrea Iannone in fifth.
At the start, Marquez was swamped by Lorenzo and Dovizioso, as he was pushed back to 4th on the opening lap.
Lorenzo would lead and build a margin on the rest of the field.
His team-mate, Rossi, would move to 5th from 7th on the grid and past Marquez on lap 3 for 4th.
Over the next few laps he would close on the Ducati’s and move past both of them on lap 12 and 13.
While he would try to close on Lorenzo, he didn’t have enough tyre grip, and the Italian fell away.
Behind the two, a battle heated up, between Marquez, Smith and Iannone.
Marquez, who struggled for pace, couldn’t get past Smith for 5th.
As he tried to close on Smith, the British rider would close on Iannone, who was struggling with a shoulder injury.
With 8 laps to go, both closed on Iannone, and battled with the Italian for 4th spot.
Marquez, who looked to have conserved his tyres, overtook both Smith and Iannone on lap 23 to move to 4th.
Iannone though didn’t give up the battle and traded positions with Marquez over the next two laps.
Unfortunately for him, his shoulder couldn’t allow him to continue the fight, and he was forced to concede the position and fight for 5th.
He would hold on and score an incredible result despite the injury.
The day wasn’t so good for Jack Miller who crashed after climbing to 11th during the race.
That is the Aussies first retirement this year and is now 18th in the championship.
The field now has a two week break before heading to Mugello for the next round.
Rossi and Dovizioso will be aiming to win the race in front of their home fans.
Can Marc Marquez go back to back and win the French Grand Prix at the famous Le Mans circuit?
Find out as The Roar live blogs the Moto GP race from Le Mans at 10:00pm AEST.
Last year Marc Marquez won his first Moto GP race in France by beating Valentino Rossi by 1.4 seconds in the corresponding race last year.
Now he returns this year with a point’s deficit to chase after a poor start to the season by his standards.
He has only won one race this season and is 26 points behind Valentino Rossi.
In the last race, in Jerez, he was beaten by Jorge Lorenzo who recorded his first win of the season.
One of the characteristics of the season has been the closeness between Yamaha, Ducati, and Honda.
All brands have been competitive and all three occupy top four spots in the championship.
Leading the charge has been Valentino Rossi, who has turned back the clock this season. The 10 time champion in all classes has won two races and finished on the podium in the other two.
He has a 20 point lead currently and will look to extend that today.
Rossi is a three time winner here with Lorenzo also winning at the event three times. In qualifying for the event though, both drivers struggled, with Rossi in seventh and Lorenzo in third.
While third isn’t bad for Lorenzo he was over half a second behind Marquez who took pole position for the race.
Andrea Dovizioso, in his Ducati, completes the front row after finishing in second. Australia’s Jack Miller will start in 18th after failing to make it through the first qualifying session. He was eighth in that part of qualifying.
Predicting what will happen in the race depends on the weather. There was rain before the qualifying session, and while no rain is forecasted for the race you can’t rule it out in Le Mans.
If it is dry then Marquez should win the race. He has been dominant all weekend and obliterated the field in qualifying.
Marquez will run away with the race if it is dry. If the race is wet then Yamaha come right into contention.
Their bike handles better in the wet conditions and Rossi is one of the best riders in the wet.
They will close the gap quickly to the Honda if it rains.
It promises to be an exciting race if rain comes to play today. Keep an eye on The Roar as we live blog the race.
Prediction: Marquez if it is dry and Rossi if it rains.
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