Rossi wins as Toseland retires

Eurosport - Sun, 18 May 16:16:00 2008

Valentino Rossi fought from fourth on the grid to win the French MotoGP at Le Mans by almost five seconds from Fiat Yamaha team-mate and rookie sensation Jorge Lorenzo, who began in fifth.

Briton James Toseland of Yamaha Tech 3 retired only two laps in while his team-mate Colin Edwards took third.

The finish means that Italian Rossi takes over at the top of the riders' standings with 97 points, while Spaniards Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa - who finished fourth after a battle with American Edwards - are level on 94.

Reigning world champion Casey Stoner was fifth after holding a podium position for several laps and is fourth overall, a massive 38 points further back.

Stoner led the grand prix after an electric start put him ahead of pole sitter Pedrosa, with Edwards ahead of Rossi and 2006 champion Nicky Hayden.

Toseland settled into sixth position after the first lap and he set his mind to taking on Hayden, whose woes were to continue with a final placing of ninth. However he collided with Andrea Dovizioso and took a trip into the gravel and out of the race.

Lorenzo, who can barely walk after his recent crashes in China and twice in practice this weekend, had dropped out of the top eight after a slow start. And Rossi immediately set out his intentions by shooting into second position.

Rossi went one better on lap five by taking on Stoner with success as Pedrosa too tried to move past the Australian, but was thwarted.

Lorenzo moved up to sixth by lap 10 as Pedrosa went past Stoner. Two laps further on Edwards, lurking with intent just ahead of Chris Vermeulen, briefly left the Ducati Marlboro man behind him only to lose his racing line coming out of the corner and drop back again.

Hayden ran wide and effectively nullified his potential challenge for major points while Lorenzo took fifth and rain began to spit after a sunny start.

The weather did not develop into a race-threatening situation and Rossi gradually built his lead. Lorenzo continued his ascent into the top three by lap 19.

Stoner followed John Hopkins, forced to retire from a points position when his chain flew off, out of the GP with a mechanical problem when only eight laps remained.

There was no stopping Lorenzo as he went second and built a gap of his own to take a comfortable runners-up spot while carving five seconds from Rossi's almost 10-second lead beforehand.

Repsol Honda man Pedrosa tried to win a podium spot from Edwards but did not have enough to go past him before the 28th and final lap.

Rossi's victory meant that he equalled the 90 in all classes of MotoGP legend Angel Nieto. He is a long way behind Giacomo Agostini's total of 122.