The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team are ready to put up a fight at the Le Mans Bugatti Grand Prix race circuit for the honours of this weekend‘s Grand Prix de France.
The seventh round will be important for home hero Fabio Quartararo, who is currently leading the championship standings by 7 points. However, the pressure is only stoking the fire within him even further.
Knowing that the Bugatti track suits the YZR-M1‘s nimble character, El Diablo is feeling positive about his prospects for this weekend. He would love nothing better than to make the French fans proud and improve on his third place from last year, secured in wet conditions.
After six rounds, Franco Morbidelli holds 16th in the championship standings. Keen to move up the order, the number-21 rider‘s goal for this weekend is to pay a visit to the French rostrum again like he did in 2017 when he won the Moto2 race there.
The Italian is eager to give the set-up improvement from the Spanish GP warm up session another try, in order to confirm its effectiveness. However, with the predictions for the weekend‘s weather uncertain, there's a good chance that he will also be working on the wet weather set-ups.
The Bugatti Grand Prix race circuit was built in 1965, just a few kilometres from the city of Le Mans. MotoGP made its first visit to the iconic French track in the late sixties, and it remained a fixture until 1996. After some safety modifications, the 4.2km-long circuit was added back to the calendar in 2000. Its lay-out of five left and nine right corners places the emphasis on late braking, hard acceleration, and rear-end traction, which makes for some great battles.
Those who want to refresh their memories of what a lap around the Bugatti track looks like can watch MotoGP eSport riders Lorenzo Daretti do a ’comeback race‘ in this week‘s eLap video.