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2003 French motorcycle Grand Prix

  2003 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 16 races in the 2003 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	25 May 2003
Official name	Grand Prix Polini de France[1][2]
Location	Bugatti Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.180 km (2.597 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position Rider Valentino Rossi Honda Time 1:35.208 Fastest lap Rider Noriyuki Haga Aprilia Time 1:36.688 on lap 9 (first part) Podium First Sete Gibernau Honda Second Valentino Rossi Honda Third Alex Barros Yamaha
250 cc
Pole position Rider Manuel Poggiali Aprilia Time 1:39.229 Fastest lap Rider Randy de Puniet Aprilia Time 1:40.356 on lap 9 Podium First Toni Elías Aprilia Second Randy de Puniet Aprilia Third Roberto Rolfo Honda
125 cc
Pole position Rider Andrea Dovizioso Honda Time 1:43.565 Fastest lap Rider Daniel Pedrosa Honda Time 1:43.837 on lap 8 Podium First Daniel Pedrosa Honda Second Lucio Cecchinello Aprilia Third Andrea Dovizioso Honda

The 2003 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2003 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 May 2003 at the Bugatti Circuit located in Le Mans, France.

MotoGP classification[edit]

The race was stopped after 15 laps due to rain. It was later restarted for 13 laps with the grid order determined by the running order after the suspension. The second part of the race determined the final result.

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	15	Sete Gibernau	Telefónica Movistar Honda	Honda	13	24:29.665	7	25
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Repsol Honda	Honda	13	+0.165	1	20
3	4	Alex Barros	Gauloises Yamaha Team	Yamaha	13	+1.793	2	16
4	19	Olivier Jacque	Gauloises Yamaha Team	Yamaha	13	+29.912	16	13
5	3	Max Biaggi	Camel Pramac Pons	Honda	13	+31.493	5	11
6	99	Jeremy McWilliams	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	13	+33.946	12	10
7	11	Tohru Ukawa	Camel Pramac Pons	Honda	13	+35.447	8	9
8	41	Noriyuki Haga	Alice Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	13	+36.231	18	8
9	8	Garry McCoy	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	13	+51.254	22	7
10	45	Colin Edwards	Alice Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	13	+1:01.802	19	6
11	17	Norifumi Abe	Yamaha Racing Team	Yamaha	12	+1 lap	10	5
12	69	Nicky Hayden	Repsol Honda	Honda	12	+1 lap	13	4
13	23	Ryuichi Kiyonari	Telefónica Movistar Honda	Honda	12	+1 lap	23	3
14	56	Shinya Nakano	d'Antín Yamaha Team	Yamaha	11	+2 laps	9	2
15	33	Marco Melandri	Fortuna Yamaha Team	Yamaha	11	+2 laps	4	1
16	10	Kenny Roberts Jr.	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	11	+2 laps	17
Ret	88	Andrew Pitt	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	3	Accident	21
Ret	21	John Hopkins	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	2	Accident	11
Ret	6	Makoto Tamada	Pramac Honda	Honda	1	Accident	15
Ret	12	Troy Bayliss	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	0	Accident in 1st part	14
Ret	65	Loris Capirossi	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	0	Retirement in 1st part	3
Ret	7	Carlos Checa	Fortuna Yamaha Team	Yamaha	0	Accident in 1st part	6
Ret	9	Nobuatsu Aoki	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	0	Retirement in 1st part	20
Source: [3][4][5]

250 cc classification[edit]

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	24	Toni Elías	Aprilia	26	43:55.538	5	25
2	7	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia	26	+3.740	3	20
3	3	Roberto Rolfo	Honda	26	+4.562	9	16
4	10	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia	26	+4.972	4	13
5	8	Naoki Matsudo	Yamaha	26	+5.122	8	11
6	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Aprilia	26	+6.100	7	10
7	14	Anthony West	Aprilia	26	+29.672	10	9
8	6	Alex Debón	Honda	26	+34.885	17	8
9	15	Christian Gemmel	Honda	26	+35.013	22	7
10	11	Joan Olivé	Aprilia	26	+35.559	13	6
11	33	Héctor Faubel	Aprilia	26	+45.562	15	5
12	16	Johan Stigefelt	Aprilia	26	+54.955	14	4
13	26	Alex Baldolini	Aprilia	26	+55.049	23	3
14	9	Hugo Marchand	Aprilia	26	+55.794	12	2
15	34	Eric Bataille	Honda	26	+56.183	18	1
16	13	Jaroslav Huleš	Yamaha	26	+57.386	21
17	36	Erwan Nigon	Aprilia	26	+1:27.351	11
18	21	Franco Battaini	Aprilia	26	+1:36.597	2
19	96	Jakub Smrž	Honda	25	+1 lap	20
20	18	Henk vd Lagemaat	Honda	25	+1 lap	24
Ret	57	Chaz Davies	Aprilia	22	Retirement	16
Ret	28	Dirk Heidolf	Aprilia	9	Retirement	19
Ret	5	Sebastián Porto	Honda	5	Accident	6
Ret	54	Manuel Poggiali	Aprilia	5	Accident	1
Ret	45	Samuel Aubry	Honda	2	Retirement	25
DNQ	44	Vincent Eisen	Honda		Did not qualify
DNQ	98	Katja Poensgen	Honda		Did not qualify
Source: [6]

125 cc classification[edit]

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda	24	41:58.500	6	25
2	4	Lucio Cecchinello	Aprilia	24	+2.337	7	20
3	34	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	24	+2.427	1	16
4	27	Casey Stoner	Aprilia	24	+11.278	4	13
5	22	Pablo Nieto	Aprilia	24	+11.814	17	11
6	41	Youichi Ui	Aprilia	24	+12.592	2	10
7	7	Stefano Perugini	Aprilia	24	+18.930	15	9
8	17	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	24	+25.206	18	8
9	12	Thomas Lüthi	Honda	24	+29.471	10	7
10	8	Masao Azuma	Honda	24	+33.910	14	6
11	80	Héctor Barberá	Aprilia	24	+44.379	9	5
12	6	Mirko Giansanti	Aprilia	24	+44.537	11	4
13	23	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	24	+55.218	12	3
14	24	Simone Corsi	Honda	24	+58.773	19	2
15	10	Roberto Locatelli	KTM	24	+58.962	28	1
16	79	Gábor Talmácsi	Aprilia	24	+1:07.803	16
17	63	Mike Di Meglio	Aprilia	24	+1:17.604	27
18	11	Max Sabbatani	Aprilia	24	+1:20.140	20
19	26	Emilio Alzamora	Derbi	24	+1:40.757	21
20	31	Julián Simón	Malaguti	24	+1:43.908	26
21	14	Chris Martin	Aprilia	24	+1:49.778	33
22	78	Péter Lénárt	Honda	23	+1 lap	35
23	25	Imre Tóth	Honda	23	+1 lap	31
24	21	Leon Camier	Honda	23	+1 lap	37
25	74	Jimmy Petit	Honda	23	+1 lap	30
Ret	15	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	23	Accident	5
Ret	32	Fabrizio Lai	Malaguti	18	Retirement	22
Ret	19	Álvaro Bautista	Aprilia	16	Accident	23
Ret	73	William Gautier	Honda	13	Retirement	32
Ret	86	Grégory Lefort	Aprilia	11	Retirement	34
Ret	85	Xavier Herouin	Honda	10	Retirement	36
Ret	72	Alexis Masbou	Honda	9	Accident	29
Ret	58	Marco Simoncelli	Aprilia	4	Retirement	25
Ret	42	Gioele Pellino	Aprilia	3	Retirement	24
Ret	1	Arnaud Vincent	KTM	0	Accident	8
Ret	36	Mika Kallio	Honda	0	Retirement	13
Ret	48	Jorge Lorenzo	Derbi	0	Accident	3
DNS	33	Stefano Bianco	Gilera		Did not start
Source: [7]

Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)[edit]

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round four has concluded.^[8][9]

Riders' Championship standings Pos. Rider Points 1 Valentino Rossi 90 2 Max Biaggi 67 3 Sete Gibernau 63 4 Alex Barros 46 5 Troy Bayliss 40

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Honda 100 2 Yamaha 46 3 Ducati 45 4 Aprilia 23 5 / Proton KR 21

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[edit]