Marc Márquez, in the wake of Agostini and Lorenzo
Talking about the French Grand Prix is basically talking about two very prominent personal names: Giacomo Agostini and Jorge Lorenzo. The Italian is the rider with the most wins on French soil to his credit, with a total of seven victories, four of them in the 500cc and three in the 350cc. The Spaniard, meanwhile, despite being in second place, with six victories to his credit, is the one who has the most victories in the highest category of motorcycling, a total of five, to which we must also add the one achieved in 2007, the year in which he would be proclaimed champion for the second consecutive time in 250cc. The legendary Ángel Nieto, for his part, is in the third step, with five victories: three in 125cc, one in 80cc and one in 50cc.
Marc Márquez, who has finally been able to get back on a motorcycle in France after the accident suffered in Portugal, at the premiere of the current edition of the championship, is in the wake of all of them. Right now, he is the best position to, at least, fight to match Agostini's four 500cc victories and, later, attack the five achieved by Lorenzo. The one from Cervera, right now, has three victories on French soil, achieved in 2014, 2018 and 2019, to which must also be added the one achieved in Moto2 in 2011. As in the case of its illustrious predecessors, winning at Le Mans is almost a guarantee of success: whenever he managed to win on French soil, he finished the season as champion. Something that also happened in the case of Giacomo Agostini while, in the case of Jorge Lorenzo, only his victory in 2016 ended up not becoming a talisman. That year, despite not winning in France, the world championship would fall into the hands of a Márquez who would be completely intractable until 2019.
Marc Márquez, moreover, is a rare bird. Currently, he is the only rider with four wins in total in France who can aspire to knock Ángel Nieto off the podium. The rest of the pilots who managed to accumulate that number of victories are already retired from the circuits. The last one was the Swiss Thomas Lüthi, who got off the bike in 2021 after having achieved four first places, two of them in Moto2 and two in 125cc, but the list contains a good number of decidedly illustrious names in motorcycling in recent years. 30 years. Like, for example, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi or Mick Doohan. Maverick Viñales, for his part, is currently the only active rider with three wins, achieved in 125cc, Moto3 and MotoGP.
In general, the French lands seem to bode well for a Márquez who was reunited with his best feelings, but who would be snatched from pole position by a Pecco Bagnaia who, not for nothing, holds the fastest lap record at Le Mans. The Italian, who managed to climb back to the top of the standings in Jerez after taking advantage of the mistake of Marco Bezzecchi who, both in Argentina and in the United States, had been able to profit from the mistakes made by Bagnaia himself. The defending champion seems to have learned from his mistakes and wants to head straight towards what could be his second consecutive world championship.