Jorge Martin started the 2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix from pole position and as the favourite after taking victory commandingly in Saturday's Sprint.

It was Bagnaia who made the holeshot, and he would lead the first 19 laps. He and Martin were almost two seconds clear by this point, but the battle ignited by Martin at turn three on lap 20 brough Marc Marquez into the victory battle.

Martin's lap 20 attempt failed, but he made it stick a lap later. Yet, he was unable to break Bagnaia, who now had to balance attacking Martin with the knowledge that any door left slightly open would be charge through by Marquez.

In the end, Martin never gave Bagnaia a chance, even when he ran wide at turn four on the penultimate lap, and Bagnaia's consideration of where to pass the #89 cost him to Marquez on the last lap, when the eight-times champion made his way through at turn nine.

Marquez' pass handed the victory to Martin, but Marquez knew that second was the best he could do having entered the final lap in third. Not only were the four points vital for Marquez, but he had to prove to himself that he could pass Bagnaia and make it stick after their Jerez duel.

The result for Bagnaia was settling for third and falling to 38 points behind Martin, having entered the weekend 17 back.

Martin, on the other hand, had proven that he can defeat Bagnaia in a head-to-head, as he had done in Germany last year, and that his Spanish GP crash was just a blip.

Enea Bastianini set a flurry of fastest race laps in the last part of the race,but these all came after he had fluffed a pass on Aleix Espargaro at turn nine, forcing Espargaro through the escape road and being unable to stop himself. He earned himself a long lap penalty for that, which meant that late race pace could only get him to fourth place.

Maverick Vinales was fifth, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio who was fighting for the podium early on but got a long lap penalty for cutting the Dunlop Chicane when trying to rebuff a pass from Marquez and ended up sixth, ahead of Franco Morbidelli who had his best result since Argentina last year in seventh. Brad Binder came from last to eighth, ahead of Aleix Espargaro whose race was undone by the Bastianini pass, and Alex Marquez who rounded out the top 10.