A little clever had fun counting the spectators who invaded the Bugatti circuit of Le Mans on May 15th.
They were exactly 110,003 fans.
They were more than 200,000 to reach the capital of motors and rillettes over the whole weekend.
If one had to doubt the increasingly important popular success of the bike, Le Mans has brought a sacred proof.
This huge crowd has come to witness a historic event.
She was waiting for the first victory for more than 60 years for a French driver in this Grand Prix de France.
Unfortunately, it failed: the two French drivers Fabio Quartararo and Johann Zarco failed in this quest.
A year ago, they took second (Zarco) and third place (Quartararo) in the Sarthe.
The world champion despite a nice comeback took 4th place in a race dominated by the Italian Enea Bastianini who won his third victory of the season.
Johann Zarco, penalized and starting in 9th position, made up part of his delay.
Despite a nice comeback also to his credit, he went too far to hope for better than a very decent 5th place.
Enea Bastianini boss at Le Mans 🔝
The Italian wins his 3rd race of the season taking advantage of a fall from Bagnaia a few laps from the end đź‘Ź
🇫🇷 @FabioQ20 4th, @JohannZarco1 5th#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 #MotoGP
â–¶: https: //t.co/Q9uXtTYtRy pic.twitter.com/VGCaS6FoiZ
— CANAL+ MotoGP™ (@CanalplusMotoGP) May 15, 2022
Suddenly, the fight in the lead was for a long time reduced to a duel between two Italians: Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.
Victory seemed promised to the first before, under pressure from his compatriot, he crashed into the gravel 6 laps from the finish.
A fall which indirectly made the business of the Niçois Quartararo ensured with this bowl to stay at the top of the World Championship.
Enea Bastianini no longer had an opponent and he won with a good lead.
In the last laps, Quartararo and the Spaniard Aleix Espargare fought a nice duel to climb on the third step of the podium behind Enea Bastianini and the Australian Jack Miller.
But Espargare did not give in, leaving the chocolate medal to the world champion.
