Honda's Pedrosa wins French MotoGP

Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa drives his Honda during a free practice session at Le Mans’ circuit, western France, on May 18, 2013. Pedrosa as won the French MotoGP to take the lead in the world championship standings.

Le Mans - Honda’s Dani Pedrosa won the French MotoGP at Le Mans on Sunday from a hobbling Cal Crutchlow to take the lead in the world championship standings.

The Spaniard, following up his win in Spain last time out, made light of the tricky early wet conditions to cross the line five seconds clear of Crutchlow.

The Briton manfully shrugged off a fracture to his right shin in a crash in qualifying 24 hours earlier to notch up his best ever MotoGP result.

In third came pole-sitter Marc Marquez, who struggled for grip on the slippery Bugatti circuit in the early stages before fighting back strongly.

Pedrosa now leads the overall standings on 83 points with MotoGP rookie Marquez second on 77 points and defending champion Jorge Lorenzo eleven points adrift in third.

“It was a very good race for me,” said Pedrosa after his first MotoGP win at the Le Mans circuit.

“I’m so happy with this one because I lost some position sliding at the start but recovered at the first turn. I had no grip on the rear. I then started to have some good feeling in the wet, so I tried to push but made a couple of mistakes and almost went off twice.”

At the off Marquez slipped down the field to eighth with the pack led by Andrea Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Pedrosa.

Pedrosa took control with 23 laps remaining as Valentino Rossi, targeting his 80th MotoGP win, crept up to lie fourth from eighth on the grid.

With the track drying as the sun came out Lorenzo surprisingly dropped off the pace as Pedrosa and Dovizioso continued their battle for superiority.

Rossi suffered misfortune on lap 11 when he lost control of his Yamaha, his bike slithering unceremoniously into the safety gravel rounding a turn while vying for fourth place with Nicky Hayden.

The Italian dusted himself off and climbed back on board to resume in 12th.

Pedrosa, meanwhile, had put plenty of daylight between himself and the chasing pack, keeping out of trouble in the closing stages to coast home alone.

For Lorenzo, who came home in seventh place, it was his worst finish since his maiden MotoGP campaign in 2008.

“At the beginning of the race the bike was not the same as in the warm-up, but not so bad, and I could follow Andrea (Dovizioso) and Dani (Pedrosa),” Lorenzo said.

“I was losing a lot in some areas of the track but recovering in others.

“Then after three or four laps the bike got worse and I got problems everywhere.”

Rossi is now without a win since he collected his 79th career win in Malaysia in 2010.

“I think we had the potential to be with the first three and on the podium,” said the Italian.

“I had a good pace and I was fast and I could fight with the other guys. In that corner, I didn’t arrive too fast and didn’t feel any mistake, but I felt a bump and lost the front so it’s a pity because we lose points and especially the chance to try to have a good podium here.”