It is fairly safe to say that the past few years have been a bit turbulent for the Italian racing giants Ducati. We have the highly anticipated arrival of Rossi which, ultimately, ended in disappointment all round and then the Audi deal along with several changes in backroom staff and racing personnel so it was really up to the team this Moto GP season to push on and do well. That being said, it did not start out like that. The Jerez race finished fairly poorly for the two Ducati riders, Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, with the team commenting that they really should have done better than the 7th and 8th finishes especially with rivals Honda and Yamaha occupying the top spots. The conditions were not that favourable to the riders in general with wet surfaces and rain. The conditions had been dry right up until the race itself so there was not opportunity for anyone to practice the track on a wet surface and this aided in the difficulty of the race itself. Le Mens can be a daunting track but with wet conditions then it makes racing in the French GP even harder and more strenuous than it usually is. Hayden started in the fourth row however he was able to quickly overcome this and shrug it off to put in a strong performance overall. He even reached the zenith of fourth place at one point before eventually finishing 5th overall which is a much better position and a great improvement on his Jerez 7th place finish that was so disappointing for the whole team. Indeed, the Ducati team can have their heads held high after this performance and hopefully build on this for the rest of the Moto GP season which is still in its infancy. There was even better news for fellow Ducati rider and teammate Andrea Dovizioso who finished one place ahead of Hayden in fourth. Considering some of the places the team has finished in the past two to three years a 4th and 5th place finish is not bad at all and certainly provides a platform to work with abd build upon. While Hayden was never really in contention for a podium finish despite being fourth at one point, Andrea Dovizioso did go in with a chance of finishing in the top three but ultimately fell just short. He did, however, lead for 8 out of the 13 laps and can be extremely happy with his performance overall. The race was eventually won by Dani Pedrosa of Honda who is having a storming Moto GP season so far and leads the overall standings. However, with a much improved performance by both Ducati riders then surely it is only a matter of time before the Italians push on and end up back where they belong, in amongst the podiums and medals. Monster Energy Grand Prix de France 1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 49'17.707 2. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech3 + 4.863 3. Marc Marquez (SPA) Repsol Honda Team + 6.949 4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Ducati Team + 10.087 5. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Team + 18.471 6. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Go&Fun Honda Gresini + 23.561 7. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA)Yamaha Factory Racing + 27.961 8. Michele Pirro (ITA) Ducati Test Team + 40.775 9. Bradley Smith (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech3 + 41.407 10. Stefan Bradl (GER) LCR Honda MotoGP + 1'00.995 11. Andrea Iannone (ITA) Pramac Racing Team + 1'05.110 12. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha Factory Racing + 1'16.368 13. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Power Electronics Aspar + 1'24.200 14. Danilo Petrucci (ITA) Came Iodaracing Project + 1'25.726 15. Karel Abraham (CZE) Cardion AB Motoracing + 1'32.111 16. Colin Edwards (USA) NGM Mobile Forward Racing + 1'40.602 17. Michael Laverty (GBR) Paul Bird Motorsport After 1 laps 18. Hector Barbera (SPA) Avintia Blusens After 1 laps 19. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN)Avintia Blusens After 1 laps 20. Yonny Hernandez (COL) Paul Bird Motorsport Not classified (8 laps) 21. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Power Electronics Aspar NC (13 laps) 22. Lukas Pesek (CZE) Came IodaRacing Project NC (13 laps) 23. Claudio Corti (ITA) NGM Mobile Forward Racing NC. (21 laps) 24. Bryan Staring (AUS) Go&Fun Honda Gresini NC.(27 laps)
