Aron Canet started the 2024 Moto2 French Grand Prix from pole position, after he came through Q1 on Saturday, still in pain from the broken ankle he sustained in practice for the Moto2 Spanish Grand Prix. A poor start hampered his chances, though, and instead it was a management masterclass from Sergio Garcia that took victory in Le Mans.

Canet went completely backwards at the start, falling outside the top 10, while Garcia made the holeshot.

Some chaos in the Dunlop chicane on the first immediately gave Garcia a 0.7-second lead over Joe Roberts, who had gone in a different direction from the rest of the front runners by choosing the medium-compound front tyre.

It was clearly not working out early on for Roberts, who was unable to make ground on Garcia ahead or the group behind.

In that group were Alonso Lopez and Aron Canet who both soon showed themselves to have the best pace other than Garcia.

Canet's charge through was remarkable: from 11th after turn three on the first lap, he was eighth at the end of it, then sixth on lap three, fifth on lap four, fourth on lap five, and onto the podium on lap six. Then he passed Roberts for second on lap seven, by which time Garcia had opened 1.7 seconds.

It was a case of management from there for Garcia, who was ultimately unchallenged on the way to his second win of the season.

Behind, things were more complicated. Canet's pace started to drop with six laps to go, and Lopez took second place on lap 20. A mistake from the #21 on the next lap at turn three backed Canet up into Ai Ogura, who had come from 17th on the grid to now fight for the podium.

Canet resisted, but Ogura took third place at turn five on the final lap, when Canet lost the rear trying to defend his position on the exit of the chicane. Things got worse for Canet at turn eight, when Joe Roberts forced his way through and pushed Canet out wide and down to sixth. At the same time, Ogura attacked Lopez, who was out of rear grip, and took second.

There was no retaliation from either Canet or Lopez, the former finishing sixth and the latter holding onto the final podium spot despite a late attack from Roberts at the final corner. Lopez' third place behind the MT Helmets MSI duo of Garcia and Ogura made it the first-ever Boscoscuro podium lockout of a Moto2 Grand Prix.

Joe Roberts had to settle for fourth, ahead of Somkiat Chantra who benefited when Canet went wide at turn eight to take fifth place, while Canet himself was sixth. Fermin Aldeguer never had the pace of the front runners and finished seventh, ahead of Tony Arbolino, Albert Arenas, and Izan Guevara who completed the podium.