Le Mans Review: Best-Case Scenario

There is something fantastic about knowing that there is going to be a belting race.

When having a glass of very palatable red on Saturday night, watching the sun go down over an historic circuit such as Le Mans, knowing there is going to be a wacky podium in some shape or form because it's going to rain, life is good.

The forecasters had been wrong all weekend in France, but they got it bang-on for the Sunday MotoGP race. About ten past two they said the heavens would open, and right on schedule, open they did. I'm sure I saw Noah building something when I got back to the paddock ...

Ever since the rules were changed at the start of 2005 to rid us of the ridiculous aggregate race scenario, the paddock has waited to see what riders thought about the 'flag to flag' rules, whereby a MotoGP race will start and it will run its intended length until there is a winner, assuming there is no horrendous downpour or similarly frightening accident.

We are now living in the Sky + generation with 600-odd channels of TV, too much motorsport and too little time to watch it all, so a race that starts on top of the hour must have a conclusion within that hour, otherwise it all drags out.

Mugello in 2004 was a race that was interrupted because a rain shower had fallen at San Donato, the first corner. The riders put up their hands to signal to race control that it was raining, and then drifted back to the pits to sit around and talk about the remaining six-lap race that was to be a 'dash for the cash' race to the flag.

The lunatics were running the asylum in that either the leader or the world champion could put his hand up and effectively stop the race, which was all well and good so far as the riders' trade union was concerned, but not for the thing that got their wages paid: TV.

Max Biaggi (Pons Honda) leads the restarted 2004 Italian Grand Prix at Mugello © Reuters

That day in Italy saw one station unable to wait for the restart as it took too long. They went off to the rugby, and the six-lap dash to the flag was not shown. Oops.

It goes without saying that the six-lap race took place with all riders on slick tyres as the 'rain' was just a shower at that particular corner of the Mugello valley. All that hanging around and lost viewers for what?

The rules were changed so that we would go straight through from lights to flag. If it started dry and it then rained, the race director would put a white flag out to signal that the riders were permitted to come into the pits and change machines, leaving the pits on tyres appropriate for the conditions.

An entire machine change was needed because bikes have their pads mounted on the bike, but the disc mounted on the wheel, and carbon/carbon pads do not work on steel discs that are needed for the obviously cooler running in the wet.

If the riders didn't like it, they were going to have to put up a seriously strong argument to change it.

The first race where it rained after starting dry was in Portugal in 2005. It drizzled a bit at the first turn, leaving the hapless Sete Gibernau to lead into the slippery corner - and fall.

The following riders saw the yellow flags and they were warned of the greasy nature of the track, leaving Alex Barros to win the race.

Bizarrel, Gibernau remained steadfast in his dislike of the ability to use a radio link from his chief engineer Juan Martinez even after the loss of the race.

Soon, the 'ship to shore' radio possibility was banned by the FIM in case costs spiralled out of control.

It seemed a cracking possibility for Gibernau's sponsor, Movistar, a major mobile phone carrier in Spain, to capitalise on such a concept, even opening the possibility to do a deal with Dorna to supply standard radios to all on the grid who wished them.

In extreme conditions, riders could get information or instructions from spotters around the track. Otherwise there would be radio silence in case the rider was, and I quote many of the riders, 'distracted'.

Last weekend at Le Mans revealed the perfect shakeout of these rules. And what a show we had!

Six different leaders of the race and in the space of seven laps, a rookie leading on a normally uncompetitive bike from third last in the first corner to passing Valentino Rossi and leading it all on the sixth lap.

This was proper motorsport, but as Sylvain Guintoli said to his engineer when sitting 11th on the grid, "I'm going to lead this. I'm going to be the slaughter-man through these first laps."

Sylvain Guintoli (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) lead the French Grand Prix at Le Mans © DPPI

He could have been safe and thought about the points, the potential injuries and the loss of a contract for next year, but no. He got stuck in going for glory in front of his home crowd.

Randy De Puniet's Kawasaki snuck past and had his time leading a MotoGP for the very first time too, but the inevitable happened. They both lobbed it, but there was something very chivalric about it.

Guintoli got back on, came into the pits, changed bikes and still finished tenth, inside the top ten just as he wanted the day before, the difference being that he had chuckled to himself when he passed Rossi and had led the race.

The energy of commentating on a race with 16 pitstops in two laps is quite something, and things are missed in the heat of the moment.

In this case, it was that the speed of Chris Vermuelen's Suzuki on his in-lap (last lap on the bike with slicks) was four second faster than any other of the top runners.

"I put my knee on the ground on the way out of pitlane to the left and then the right under the bridge, so I knew there was some grip from the tyres," said the winner.

That's confidence, as the line between being upright and crashing is minuscule in those conditions.

By the time it shook out, Vermuelen led all the way to the flag. He could enjoy being one of the few people to win a World Superbike race first and a MotoGP one second.

What's really frightening is that in the last six races there's been five Aussie wins between three riders - all of them 'first time' winners too!

Aussies who weren't winning were the Jerry Burgess-led Yamaha crew on Rossi's side of the garage. He took too-hard a wet rear tyre, thinking that the rain would never fall as hard as it eventually did.

He finished sixth and gave away another five points to Casey Stoner's Ducati, which finished third. Mind you, he apparently didn't know that he was third as he hardly saw his pit board all race!

Le Mans in the wet last weekend, like Portugal last year, bolted across a reminder as to why we really love racing. You didn't have to know anything about motorcycle racing to enjoy what we saw.

Out-and-out pandemonium at the start, followed by a supreme show of the very best riders in the world hanging it all out for the win or the air fence.

The right man won because he had the best skill on the day. No bike advantage in any way, just the sign of yet another new star in MotoGP coming through alongside Casey Stoner.

I wonder. If we ever have a race at Paul Ricard, someone could turn the sprinkler system on halfway through the race. That would certainly make for some fantastic racing!