Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo has taken the win in a drama-packed French MotoGP race at Le Mans this afternoon which saw Valentino Rossi crash, change bike three times and finish out of the points, two laps adrift.
The race was declared wet, meaning riders could change bikes if the weather changed and as the track dried, Rossi came in on lap five to change to the YZR-M1 which was set up for the dry with slicks on.
The Doctor then went out, got halfway round and crashed on a damp part of the track. As the Italian entered the pits once again to change bikes, he got a ride-through penalty for speeding in pitlane and was forced to come in a third time.
As all this way going on, Lorenzo's pit-crew called it perfectly and left the Spaniard out on wets until those riders that changed onto slicks started in put in similar lap times, then brought him in with a big enough margin to change without losing the lead.
Lorenzo eventually crossed the line 17 seconds ahead of second-placed man Marco Melandri, who rode an inch-perfect race to get the Hayate team's first podium of the year. Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa took third after ripping past team-mate Andrea Dovizioso on the final lap.
An off-form Casey Stoner finished in fifth with Chris Vermeulen in sixth and Colin Edwards in seventh, just ahead of Loris Capirossi. Edwards got an awful start and found himself last on the first lap. He changed tyres, waited for the track to dry and then got his head down, passing team-mate James Toseland with a handful of laps to go.
Britain's Toseland eventually finished in ninth, just 10 seconds shy of his team-mate and three seconds in front of Gresini Honda's Toni Elias.
