Le Mans has had its fair share of dramas in the last few years. The notoriously fickle weather has combined with the occasional mechanical derangement to have some real turn-ups. Like Rossi's sensational DNF when he was country miles ahead, or Vermeulen's carve through the pack when the weather changed. And from the off it was clear that this year was going to be another classic, if not in the actual race then in the brouhaha that surrounded changing weather, flag to flag racing and, possibly, going out to race with a completely different setup to that used in practice and qualifying.

Practice saw Colin Edwards top the second session with Dovizioso taking the honours in the first. As we have seen quite regularly in recent times, Rossi was languishing down the field throughout free practice, though he was having a better time than Sete Gibernau who highsided in the final session and broke his collarbone for the fourth time, and was promptly wheeled off for surgery. Hold on. Colin Edwards topping the timesheets? Yes, the Texan has always gone well here, and took the opportunity to give the Tech 3 team a rather nice tenth anniversary present. As well as putting one over on his team-mate Toseland, of course.

But as we all know, free practice means little, and it's qualifying that counts. Someone else who has always gone well here is Dani Pedrosa, and the diminutive Spaniard made the most of that, taking pole by just five thousandths of a second from Jorge Lorenzo, with Stoner seven hundredths further back and Rossi relegated to the second row, four hundredths of a second slower than the Ducati. Dovizioso was next with Colin Edwards closing the second row, just a third of a second slower than Pedrosa. Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi started the third row alongside Hayate (Kawasaki) mounted Marco Melandri, who is steadily proving that yes, it was the bike last year and not him. James Toseland qualified twelfth, not his best but a steady performance after a pretty demoralising start to the year.

Race day dawned grey and sullen after a few days of cloud and stiff breezes but no rain to speak of. Warmup remained dry, but as we got ready for the actual race the heavens opened and it began to rain. Rather a lot. As a result there was a flurry of frantic activity as wet setup bikes were hauled out and warmed up. Wet setup? Who are we kidding? There was no wet setup time whatsoever, to the extent that for almost everyone, the first time the riders tried wets at Le Mans this year was when they went out on the positioning lap. Hmmm. Interesting.

So. Lights out and Dani Pedrosa did his normal rat up a drainpipe start, making the most of his pole position and slotting in ahead of Stoner, Lorenzo and Rossi. Not for long though, as Lorenzo was definitely on a mission, elbowing his way past Stoner and then slipping under his Spanish rival to open a commanding lead, even before the end of the first lap. Colin Edwards, meantime, made a truly diabolical start, dropping back to fifteenth by the end of the first lap. Clearly his wet weather setting left something - quite a lot, actually - to be desired. Stoner was obviously having a thin time as well, as Rossi tiptoed past quite easily on the second lap, passing Pedrosa a lap later, by which stage Stoner had yielded best to Vermeulen in seventh and was in danger of going further back. Three people who were doing particularly well, though, were Andrea Dovizioso, up in third, Marco Melandri, climbing all over the back of Pedrosa's Honda and James Toseland, climbing up to ninth. Toseland would actually climb a couple of places further during the race, having finally found something approaching his old form and turning in a fastest lap of the race as well.

On lap four Rossi took the surprising decision to swap from wets to his second, slick shod bike as the track appeared to be drying. And drying it was. Just not quite fast enough, as half a lap later Rossi was in the gravel having tipped off at low speed when his not yet hot slick front let go. The World Champion's day just got worse and worse, as first he struggled to get the bike back up and moving, then he had to pick up his previous machine with a wet tyre on it (to stay within the rules) before managing not to engage his pitlane speed limiter and picking up a ride through penalty as well. So he did the ride through, went back in a fourth time to get a bike on full slicks and pottered around at the back of the field, two laps down and only likely to pick up points if someone in front fell off. Which they didn't.

Up at the front, Lorenzo was playing a magnificent strategy, working on the basis that while he was still circulating at a good pace on wets there was no point in changing them. Why go in and pit when everyone on slicks is still slower, after all? And while the pundits suggested that he was making a huge mistake, the young Spaniard showed his maturity and intelligence by proving them wrong, extending an astonishing eleven second lead over the following pack before swapping for slicks.

The whole flag to flag thing got very confusing for a while. In fact, just about the only position that didn't change was Lorenzo. After everything settled down it was Marco Melandri in a solid second place from Dovizioso with Pedrosa following. Then Stoner, Vermeulen, Capirossi, Toseland and Edwards were in a loose gaggle, vaguely scrapping. In fact. Vermeulen and Stoner really were tussling for places, the Ducati appearing very inconsistent while Vermeulen appeared to be having an easier, though ultimately slower time. Edwards, in the meantime, had swapped to a slick shod bike and, after a couple of laps getting into the groove, set about making up positions. And he certainly did that well, climbing from the back of the field to pass Capirossi and Toseland and close up on Vermeulen before running out of laps. Toseland's front slick had gradually gone off, robbing him of that last few percent of grip that make all the difference at this level and relegating him to ninth behind Capirossi but ahead of a battered Toni Elias in tenth.

The real surprise of the race, apart from Rossi's departure, was Pedrosa. An inspired ride saw the Spanish Honda rider take third back from his team-mate Dovizioso on the very last lap, making up a seemingly impossible deficit. Had he ridden like that from the beginning, the result would certainly have been different.

Anyhow, Lorenzo's win puts him a point clear of Rossi, who is now tied with Stoner in second place while Pedrosa and, astonishingly, Melandri are both in striking distance as well. Of course there's a long way to go and the next round is Mugello which is in Rossi's back garden. But there's no doubt that Rossi has a fight on his hands. And the hardest person to beat is always your team-mate...

SB

France MotoGP Results

1. Jorge Lorenzo(Yamaha)
2. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki)
3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
5. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
6. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
7. Colin Edwards (Yamaha)
8. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)
9. James Toseland (Yamaha)
10. Toni Elias (Honda)

MotoGP standings (after four rounds)

1. Jorge Lorenzo 66
2. Valentino Rossi 65
3. Casey Stoner 65
4. Dani Pedrosa 57
5. Marco Melandri 43
6. Andrea Dovizioso 43
7. Colin Edwards 35
8. Chris Vermeulen 31
9. Loris Capirossi 27
10. Randy de Puniet 26