The Japan Times - Zarco first home winner of French MotoGP since 1954

Riding in his 150th MotoGP, the 34-year-old Honda LCR rider hit the front after eight laps and held his position through to the end of the race to become the first Frenchman to take the chequered flag in the top category race since Pierre Monneret in 1954.

In front of the biggest-ever attendance at a MotoGP event and with his mother watching him for the first time ever, Zarco finished 19.907 seconds ahead of six-time world champion Marc Marquez (Ducati) with 20-year-old rookie Fermin Aldeguer (Ducati-Gresini) claiming a first podium in just his sixth race.

Zarco was in tears before he was even off his bike and immediately celebrated with his team and, after the crowd had offered an impromptu rendition of La Marseillaise, he performed a back flip off a wall, his favourite celebration since his two Moto2 world titles in 2015 and 2016.

"It's incredible, I can hardly believe it," said an emotional Zarco whose only previous MotoGP win came in Australia in 2023.

"I always give my best but I never thought I'd win. The way I won was very special. I had to be in control and almost wait for victory to come."

There were no points for Alex Marquez, Marc's younger brother, who went sliding off four laps from the finish, the last of the day's six non-finishers, all victims to the filthy weather which made the track so treacherous.

Marc Marquez, who won Saturday's Sprint, now has 171 points in the championship, increasing his lead at the top of the championship to 22 points ahead of his brother.

- 'Small mistake' -

With the rain coming down, there was mayhem from the opening lap as the riders struggled with their slick tyres, Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir sliding off on turn 4.

Mir was out but Bagnaia, the 2022 and 2023 world champion, rejoined the race. Ahead of him, however, there was plenty more trouble as pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo, another home favourite, tangled on lap 5 with Brad Binder sending both of them into the gravel.

A couple of laps later, Binder went off a second time to end his race with Jack Miller, one of just four riders to start on wet tyres, also crashing out.

The early stages saw championship leader Marc Marquez overtake Quartararo and then battle for the lead with his brother.

Along with a number of others, the Marquez siblings had come in to swap to dry bikes at the end of the warm-up lap after the original start was aborted which meant, under new rules, they had to serve a double long-lap penalty.

That slowed them up and when they both came into the pits to change bikes and take on the wet tyres, Zarco took over the lead.

"That double long lap was the only small mistake I made," said Marc Marquez.

"I was trying to follow Alex to make the long lap in the same way, because like this I had somebody in front. Normally the guy who is leading, if he arrives at some corners that are wet, he is the one doing the mistake.

"But I nearly hit Fermin and I was not clear if I was doing the long lap.

"But all the rest was everything how I planned. And scoring 20 points plus yesterday, I can say that it was a good weekend."

Zarco's emergence at the front, however, was greeted with a roar from the French crowd which has packed the Le Mans circuit over the race weekend, with organisers putting the overall attendance as 311,797.

It is the first time in the history of the championship, which dates back to 1949, that weekend attendance has passed 300,000.

K.Abe--JT