Alvaro Bautista crashes out of French GP

A win for Marc Márquez at the French GP gave the Spaniard a boost in the overall standings, whilst rivals Johann Zarco and Andrea Dovizioso both crashed in the early stages of the race.

Coming into Le Mans 12 points ahead of Zarco, the Spaniard now holds a 36 point advantage over new closest rival, Maverick Viñales. Danilo Petrucci placed second and Valentino Rossi was third on race day, and now just five points separate four rivals in the battle for second in the overall standings.

The Ángel Nieto Team did not score points at the fifth round of the season, after Karel Abraham finished seventeenth and a second lap crash brought Álvaro Bautista’s race to a premature end.

Bautista had run a good pace over the weekend, and moved up four positions in the early going. When preparing to pass for fifteenth, he lost the front end and crashed out.

Both Bautista and teammate Abraham will continue their preparations for the Italian Grand Prix in two weeks’ time with a day of testing this Tuesday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Álvaro Bautista (DNF):
“It was a crash on the second lap. I lost the rear wheel slightly and at the same time the front slid out. I was coming out of Turn 6, and it’s strange to lose the front end exiting a corner. We were always a couple of tenths off the top 10 and I think that in the race we could have fought to be up there. Now we have to look ahead and see if at Mugello we can continue with the same feeling. I feel more comfortable with the bike; the change we made at Jerez was not only specific to that track. Here we were able to feel the same and ride the same, so I’m satisfied with that.”