by Tracy Hagen

Honda’s Casey Stoner won the French MotoGP Grand Prix on Sunday while the rest of the championship contenders stumbled and tumbled on the day. The victory gave the Australian a much needed boost in points after carding a DNF in the second race in Spain when Valentino Rossi fell and slid into Stoner.

It was a sweet and sour day for Team Honda, as Stoner’s teammate Andrea Dovisioso held off Rossi’s Ducati to claim second, fifteen seconds behind the Australian. It was the second race in a row that Dovisioso pipped the Italian legend at the line. The other half of Team Honda had a sour day – read on.

World champion Jorge Lorenzo was top Yamaha in fourth. The champ crashed in the morning and injured a finger. In the race Lorenzo did not make it into the lead group but the chasing group of Dovisioso and Rossi. On lap 24 of 28 the Spainard ran wide and lost two seconds to the Italians. He ended up settling for fourth, yet extended his lead in the world championship.

How was that possible? Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Marco Simoncelli came together on lap 17. Pedrosa hit the deck and broke a collarbone, again. The luckless Spainard was a close second in points and will probably miss the following race. Race officials charged Simoncelli with irresponsibility on the race track and ordered to take the pit lane ride of shame. Simoncelli left Le Mans with fifth place and the label of “a complete moron” from Pedrosa’s manager Alberto Puig.

American Ben Spies managed to finish the race in sixth after DNF-ing the last two GPs. Spies didn’t have the speed to run at the front, and instead was back with fellow Texan and Yamaha rider Colin Edwards. Edwards fell off on lap 14, and Spies found a new race partner in Ducati’s Nicky Hayden. Their friendly match took a new look when Simoncelli joined in after completing his time-out in the pit lane. The untamed Italian was the fast rider on the track over the last four laps and made easy work of the two remaining Americans.

Simoncelli’s Gresini teammate, Hiroshi Ayoyama, finished his solitary race in eighth.

The tail-enders finished closer than a Moto2 race, with Hector Barbera, Karel Abraham, Toni Elias, and Alvaro Bautista separated by less than a half-second. Loris Capirossi was part of the tail-enders until he crashed out on lap 22 after making contact with Bautista.

Click on the following image to see a high-resolution pdf version. For charts of the first three races, click here.