The season so far: full GP review for France

With five-time premier class World Champion Valentino Rossi ending a seven-race winless streak at the previous round in China MotoGP headed for Le Mans with The Doctor back in business and hoping to maintain his good form.

Before his home race LCR Honda´s Randy de Puniet was hoping for a good result too and the exciting French rider took motogp.com on an OnBoard lap of Le Mans and a night out in Paris.

Once the action commenced however it was standings leader Dani Pedrosa who set the pace, topping the morning timesheets before impressing again in free practice 2.

Friday also saw Ducati´s MotoGP Project Director Livio Suppo providing details of an early test outing for the Desmosedici GP9, which had been ridden by Vittoriano Guareschi and Niccolo Canepa at the Mugello circuit in Italy that week.

After his heavy crash in China Jorge Lorenzo was in the wars again on Saturday morning as he suffered another painful crash in free practice.

Later that day Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta gave details of the proposal for a new four-stroke intermediate World Championship class to be introduced in 2011, which was made to the other members of the Grand Prix Commission, whilst in the afternoon qualifying session it was Pedrosa who took pole.

MotoGP Legend Phil Read was at the Le Mans track for Jack Findlay memorial race, whilst MotoGP fan Alan Smith, the Newcastle United English Premier League footballer was also in attendance, soaking up the atmosphere.

On race day the organisers of MotoGP, Dorna, were given a commemorative plaque by Mr Vito Ippolito, the President of the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) on Sunday in France, to acknowledge the company´s 250th Grand Prix, which took place at the last round in China.

On the occasion of his 101st Grand Prix, however, there was nothing but frustration for Kawasaki´s John Hopkins to take away as a problem with his chain left him with a first DNF of 2008.

Indeed the day belonged to Rossi again as he took a second successive victory in the race - taking him to the top of the MotoGP standings and equalling Angel Nieto´s record of 90 Grand Prix wins. The Italian promptly celebrated with a victory lap accompanied by the Spanish MotoGP Legend.

It was a great day for Yamaha all-round as the astounding MotoGP Rookie Lorenzo finished second and veteran Colin Edwards completed the podium.

motogp.com´s story of the season so far continues on Monday with reflections on the trip to Tuscany for the Gran Premio d´Italia Alice at Mugello.