2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix

  2012 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 18 races in the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	20 May 2012
Official name	Monster Energy Grand Prix de France
Location	Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.185 km (2.600 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position
Rider	Dani Pedrosa	Honda
Time	1:33.638
Fastest lap
Rider	Valentino Rossi	Ducati
Time	1:44.614
Podium
First	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha
Second	Valentino Rossi	Ducati
Third	Casey Stoner	Honda
Moto2
Pole position
Rider	Marc Márquez	Suter
Time	1:37.710
Fastest lap
Rider	Claudio Corti	Kalex
Time	1:53.855
Podium
First	Thomas Lüthi	Suter
Second	Claudio Corti	Kalex
Third	Scott Redding	Kalex
Moto3
Pole position
Rider	Maverick Viñales	FTR Honda
Time	1:55.865
Fastest lap
Rider	Jakub Kornfeil	FTR Honda
Time	2:01.056
Podium
First	Louis Rossi	FTR Honda
Second	Alberto Moncayo	Kalex KTM
Third	Álex Rins	Suter Honda

The 2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 18–20 May 2012 at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France. In a press conference on the Thursday before the race, Casey Stoner announced his retirement from the sport at the end of the season.^[1] He went on to finish third in the MotoGP race, handing the championship lead to Jorge Lorenzo, the race winner. Valentino Rossi took second place for his first podium since the previous year's race. Thomas Lüthi and Louis Rossi won the Moto2 and Moto3 races respectively. This was the 800th race to contribute to the Grand Prix motorcycle racing championship.

Classification

MotoGP

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	28	49:39.743	4	25
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Ducati	28	+9.905	7	20
3	1	Casey Stoner	Honda	28	+11.298	2	16
4	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	28	+29.361	1	13
5	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	28	+32.477	13	11
6	69	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	28	+32.842	11	10
7	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Yamaha	28	+59.759	3	9
8	35	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	28	+1:05.152	5	8
9	8	Héctor Barberá	Ducati	28	+1:07.846	9	7
10	19	Álvaro Bautista	Honda	28	+1:13.193	8	6
11	77	James Ellison	ART	28	+1:26.663	16	5
12	54	Mattia Pasini	ART	28	+1:27.633	20	4
13	41	Aleix Espargaró	ART	27	+1 lap	17	3
14	51	Michele Pirro	FTR	27	+1 lap	14	2
15	68	Yonny Hernández	BQR	27	+1 lap	15	1
16	11	Ben Spies	Yamaha	27	+1 lap	6
17	7	Chris Vermeulen	Suter	26	+2 laps	21
18	22	Iván Silva	BQR	26	+2 laps	19
Ret	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ioda	24	Accident	18
Ret	14	Randy de Puniet	ART	22	Accident	12
Ret	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	11	Retirement	10
OFFICIAL MOTOGP REPORT

Moto2

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Thomas Lüthi	Suter	26	50:02.816	2	25
2	71	Claudio Corti	Kalex	26	+6.354	9	20
3	45	Scott Redding	Kalex	26	+12.162	4	16
4	29	Andrea Iannone	Speed Up	26	+16.338	5	13
5	36	Mika Kallio	Kalex	26	+19.278	6	11
6	40	Pol Espargaró	Kalex	26	+20.874	3	10
7	76	Max Neukirchner	Kalex	26	+28.117	26	9
8	14	Ratthapark Wilairot	Suter	26	+38.317	28	8
9	38	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	26	+40.940	19	7
10	80	Esteve Rabat	Kalex	26	+44.077	18	6
11	24	Toni Elías	Suter	26	+59.583	10	5
12	60	Julián Simón	Suter	26	+1:01.785	11	4
13	18	Nicolás Terol	Suter	26	+1:03.430	17	3
14	77	Dominique Aegerter	Suter	26	+1:10.341	12	2
15	44	Roberto Rolfo	Suter	26	+1:22.145	21	1
16	49	Axel Pons	Kalex	26	+1:46.994	16
17	72	Yuki Takahashi	Suter	25	+1 lap	20
18	10	Marco Colandrea	FTR	25	+1 lap	31
DSQ	95	Anthony West	Moriwaki	26	(+21.705)[2]	27
Ret	5	Johann Zarco	Motobi	21	Accident	8
Ret	82	Elena Rosell	Moriwaki	18	Accident	30
Ret	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	17	Accident	24
Ret	63	Mike Di Meglio	Speed Up	16	Accident	22
Ret	88	Ricard Cardús	AJR	13	Accident	15
Ret	93	Marc Márquez	Suter	11	Retirement	1
Ret	8	Gino Rea	Suter	7	Accident	23
Ret	7	Alexander Lundh	MZ-RE Honda	7	Retirement	25
Ret	15	Alex de Angelis	Suter	3	Accident	7
Ret	47	Ángel Rodríguez	Bimota	2	Accident	29
Ret	3	Simone Corsi	FTR	2	Retirement	14
Ret	4	Randy Krummenacher	Kalex	1	Retirement	13
DNS	19	Xavier Siméon	Tech 3
OFFICIAL MOTO2 REPORT

Moto3

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	96	Louis Rossi	FTR Honda	24	49:12.390	15	25
2	23	Alberto Moncayo	Kalex KTM	24	+27.348	7	20
3	42	Álex Rins	Suter Honda	24	+28.899	26	16
4	27	Niccolò Antonelli	FTR Honda	24	+33.195	27	13
5	61	Arthur Sissis	KTM	24	+36.989	14	11
6	11	Sandro Cortese	KTM	24	+45.312	6	10
7	53	Jasper Iwema	FGR Honda	24	+58.645	25	9
8	89	Alan Techer	TSR Honda	24	+1:05.022	18	8
9	21	Iván Moreno	FTR Honda	24	+1:09.194	29	7
10	30	Giulian Pedone	Suter Honda	24	+1:45.751	19	6
11	94	Jonas Folger	Ioda	23	+1 lap	11	5
12	77	Marcel Schrötter	Mahindra	23	+1 lap	32	4
13	86	Kevin Hanus	Honda	23	+1 lap	30	3
14	19	Alessandro Tonucci	FTR Honda	22	+2 laps	23	2
15	31	Niklas Ajo	KTM	20	+4 laps	13	1
Ret	63	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	KTM	17	Accident	10
Ret	25	Maverick Viñales	FTR Honda	16	Accident	1
Ret	44	Miguel Oliveira	Suter Honda	15	Accident	3
Ret	39	Luis Salom	Kalex KTM	13	Accident	9
Ret	55	Héctor Faubel	Kalex KTM	12	Accident	8
Ret	84	Jakub Kornfeil	FTR Honda	12	Accident	4
Ret	32	Isaac Viñales	FTR Honda	12	Accident	20
Ret	26	Adrián Martín	FTR Honda	8	Accident	12
Ret	8	Jack Miller	Honda	8	Retirement	22
Ret	15	Simone Grotzkyj	Suter Honda	7	Accident	24
Ret	99	Danny Webb	Mahindra	7	Retirement	31
Ret	52	Danny Kent	KTM	5	Accident	17
Ret	5	Romano Fenati	FTR Honda	2	Accident	21
Ret	10	Alexis Masbou	Honda	1	Accident	5
Ret	51	Kenta Fujii	TSR Honda	1	Accident	28
Ret	41	Brad Binder	Kalex KTM	0	Accident	16
Ret	3	Luigi Morciano	Ioda	0	Retirement	33
DNS	7	Efrén Vázquez	FTR Honda			2
DNS	9	Toni Finsterbusch	Honda
OFFICIAL MOTO3 REPORT

References

1. "MotoGP champion Casey Stoner to retire at end of season". BBC Sport. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
2. "Decision of the FIM International Disciplinary Court (CDI) in the matter of Anthony West (AUS)" (PDF). fim-live.com. Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme. 29 October 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2012. [...] the CDI decided to disqualify Anthony West from the French round of the 2012 FIM Moto2 World Championship, held on 20 May in Le Mans.