Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) reasserted himself with a dominating victory at the French MotoGP - leading an all Yamaha podium. Team Jorge Lorenzo finished an impressive 2nd despite injury. Rossi's teammate last year and now Tech 3 rider, Colin Edwards finished 3rd - taking advantage of a good qualifying position.

This is the Italian's 90th Grand Prix victory and he now leads the championship standings - he took the lead on lap seven of the race from current champion Ducati Marlboro's Casey Stoner and never relinquished it, opening a gap as wide as ten seconds on the field. The Australian had been fighting for the podium until the twentieth lap when his GP8 suffered a mechanical issues and he was forced to push his bike nearly the entire length of the track to switch machines.

Today's race was affected by the weather, with rain drops prompting the stewards to show the white flag on lap 16 - allowing a switch to bikes fitted with wet-weather tyres. Despite the increased rain and slowing pace for several laps - only two riders switched bikes.

Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - Winner
To arrive at 90 wins like this and equal Angel's record is a dream for me. I had quite a lot of pressure because Angel was waiting with the special leathers to join me on the bike, so I really needed to win! It was great to ride with him - I think maybe with some practice he can be as fast as us! 180 victories together on one bike is quite impressive I think!

Honestly I didn't expect to be so fast today but together with Jeremy and my guys we decided to make some small modifications this morning and in the race my M1 and my Bridgestone tyres worked brilliantly from start to finish. When is started to rain a little bit I thought 'oh no!' and so I steadied a bit and tried to ride very sweetly; I had such a good rhythm and I really didn't want to have to change bikes. Luckily the rain soon stopped and I was able to continue in the same way. It's great for Yamaha to have the first three and I want to congratulate Jorge especially for doing such a good job in his condition. Thanks to everybody in the team; the job that Yamaha has done in three months is incredible. I enjoyed myself so much today, the atmosphere in our garage is perfect and now we will make two important days of testing, try to improve even more and then head to Mugello.

Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 2nd
Firstly I want to say congratulations to Yamaha because it's fantastic to have three on the podium and it demonstrates how strong our bike is. After the weekend I have had, with the crashes and so much pain, I can't believe I'm here! All last night I worried about this race because I really thought it might be too hard. It was a dream to finish sixth or seventh, especially when I could only manage 11th in the warm-up. I knew I had to try however and on the grid one of my mechanics reminded me that my rivals were just the same ones as in Portugal; this was a good motivation! I had some problems at the start and it's clear that we need to work on these, but after a while I found my rhythm and once again I was able to make my way through the field and pass some riders. I think the rain helped me for the first time in my life because everyone was a little bit slower for a few laps, but second is unbelievable and I think I look a bit happier this afternoon! Now we have to work as hard as possible to heal my injuries and improve my physical condition, so that we can be back to our best in Mugello.

Colin Edwards - Yamaha Tech 3 - 3rd
I honestly thought that today was going to be my day with the pace I'd been able to run all weekend. I was fastest in free practice, fastest in the warm-up and second on the grid so I had high expectations. I really thought I could have got my first win out there, but I'll still settle for third because it was a tough race. I thought I'd got a good start and then Casey and Dani came flying by and it was almost impossible to pass them. I tried everything, but they just didn't make any mistakes and I couldn't get close enough. I wanted to get by them because looking at my lap times I know I had more in the locker, but I couldn't pass. They just had the jump on me coming out of the corners with acceleration and it would have taken a risky move for me to do it.

I'm an experienced rider and those guys are fighting for the world title while I'm in fifth, so I wasn't going to do anything stupid. And when Valentino came blazing by like a cowboy with his guns shooting I knew he was going to push hard and that it would be tough for me. Casey had a problem and I got by him and then I passed Dani, as he seemed to check a bit at the first corner because of the rain. I didn't think the rain was that bad and the lap times were not that much slower. I got to say a huge thanks to my team because I've wanted to give them a podium, and I guess there is no better to do it than in their home race. They've worked so hard and I'm glad to give them that podium. Congratulations to Yamaha as well because to have a 1-2-3 is fantastic. My Michelin tyres worked great too, so hopefully next time I can be closer to the win.

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 4th
I am sorry because we could have been on the podium but in the race I wasn't able to go as fast as I had gone during practice. From the beginning of the race I had some issues with the front tyre, I couldn't brake the way I wanted to brake. When we chose our race tyres we tried hard to choose the best tyres for the race, so we didn't expect things to turn out like they did. Then in the second half of the race I started to lack some rear grip. When Lorenzo passed me I tried to go with him and not lose contact but I couldn't manage it. I gave my maximum and despite the problems we finished fourth, which isn't so bad. We are second equal in the championship and we will continue to work hard to achieve better results at the next races. We stay here tomorrow for one day of testing when we will try to understand what happened today and make another step forward.

Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 5th
Well that was alright - I guess! I'm happy with the weekend, we made some progress and we finally got some good points on the board. I am a little disappointed with fifth because I was really hoping I'd have a bit more pace to be able to fight with the front guys. I felt I was just that little bit behind and just couldn't close the gap. We are testing here tomorrow so hopefully we can try and improve a few more things on the bike, and make more steps in Mugello. I want to say a big thanks to my crew, they've worked out all the issues we had from China and the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R worked great all weekend and we had no problems at all.

Andrea Dovizioso - JiR Scot - 6th
When I caught up with James Toseland we overtook each other a few times, then when I was in one of the downhill corners, James hit me very hard from behind. I didn't crash but his front tyre hit my body, my leathers are marked from his tyre and the bike has some rubber marks on the rear. For this reason I lost a lot of time and probably without this I could have done even better by the end of the race. We have to do better in qualifying - we know that - and have a better pace in the race.

Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki - 7th
It has been really hard for me all weekend; we just couldn't go as quick as we wanted to. We made some changes yesterday and went a bit better, but today we struggled in warm-up. In the race we didn't get the result we are looking for and seventh is not our target, but we scored some good points and we must wait for it to be our moment to go quick! I was pushed onto the grass by another rider and maybe I could have had a better result, but that is racing and he has come and apologised so that's all good. Our potential is not too bad, but we still need to discover something new so we can go a bit quicker.

Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 8th
That wasn't too pretty. All weekend we've been missing something, the pace hasn't been there. I got a good start and recovered a couple of positions but couldn't go with the group I needed to go with. I was hanging in there, then I ran off the track in turn six, got in just a little bit hot, didn't make it and that lost me three positions. I came back on, had a little dice with Loris over the last few laps but it wasn't the result we wanted. It was definitely tough conditions, it wasn't just a few drops of rain it was straight-up raining through some parts of the track. With the tyres being that hot the lap times didn't suffer too bad, but I was kinda hoping the rain would come down and let us swap bikes and try something different, but it didn't happen. This has never been an easy track for me, I'd say Le Mans is the worst track for me on the calendar. Tomorrow we'll work on chassis stuff. I need to try getting some momentum going, especially for the tracks I really love that are coming up. I need to be strong when I get to them, I need to use the people around me to find what I need.

Randy de Puniet - LCR Honda - 9th
It wasn't easy for me today because I finally made a good start but another rider pushed me wide at the chicane and when I rejoined the race I was ninth. Hopkins overtook me on the inside in the downhill and we both went wide. So I lost five places and was 14th. I started to push hard to get back into the top ten. Finally I was behind Capirossi and Hayden but was too late to pass them.

Shinya Nakano - Gresini Honda - 10th
Unfortunately today I wasn't able to put the race together as I had wanted. Starting from the fifth row always makes life difficult but over the opening few laps I couldn't even stay with the group in front of me.

Toni Elias - Alice Ducati - 11th
I started well, it seemed like it was a different race. After a few turns I was in a good position, but after a few laps I encountered the same problems that had slowed me down during the practice rounds. I gave it all I had, but this is probably our level at the moment. In addition, the rain slowed me down while I was recuperating, but it wasn't going to be a sufficient result anyway. We want to do much more. Now we have to think about Mugello, a track that I really like and that should be more favourable to the characteristics of our bike.

Alex de Angelis - Gresini Honda - 12th
Despite the end position I'm happy with today because we managed to run half of the race together with the guys who are on satellite bikes just like mine. Unfortunately when it started to rain I had no choice but to drop my pace because I was getting a lot of chatter and I couldn't feel the front. I couldn't understand if it was the tyre losing grip or if it was just the water on the track that was causing it. Anyway, I lost contact with that group but stayed in the points and that's positive.

Sylvia Guintoli - Alice Ducati - 13th
I am very disappointed. I didn't have the right feeling with the bike and I couldn't push to the maximum in the firsts laps. I risked to slipping in the first turns and I made a mistake going straight on a turn. I really don't know what to say, today I didn't manage to ride as I wanted to. I hope to do much better from the next race.

Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing - 14th
I am not happy at all. This weekend has been a struggle, because we've had the same rear traction problems that we've experienced at every track since the start of the season. But then, in the race, the rear grip was non-existent; the bike was spinning up if I even thought about opening the throttle. I knew straight away that something was wrong, but short of coming in for a change of tyre and kissing any chance of a points scoring finish goodbye, there was nothing I could do. In the end, I just did what I could to ride round the problem, but I don't think I've ever been as happy to see the chequered flag as I was today. Now I want to know what the problem was, and I want to be sure that we don't have the same problem again.

Marco Melandri - Ducati Marlboro - 15th
My race was doomed from the start because unfortunately the bike was cutting out on the sighting lap and I thought it was just a temporary thing. Then when I let the clutch out at the start it stalled completely and I lost some vital seconds. Once I got going I got my rhythm together and when I saw it was raining I decided to come in and hope that the gamble of an early change would pay off with some more rain. It's a shame because things went well in the warm-up when the bike was more balanced and more predictable and I think I was capable of a good race. Now we have a couple of days to test and I'm sure we can make a real step forward before Mugello, a circuit I love.

Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team - 16th
I got a decent start to the race today but unfortunately I just didn't have any feeling for the right hand side of the front tyre. I was losing a lot of grip at maximum lean and kept closing the front so I lost a lot of confidence. I couldn't brake as late as I had been doing during practice so I had to ride around it and managed to get to the point where it was only when the tyre was right on the edge, in T4, that I was really losing time. I was there or thereabouts, still in with a shout of a podium position, and it started to rain so I thought that could give us a chance. Unfortunately that was when I started to have a problem with the engine, I couldn't get any drive off the bottom end and couldn't overtake anybody. Then a couple of laps later the engine problem effectively ended the race for us. This weekend has had a lot of positive aspects to it - we've got back up to speed again and found our old feeling with the bike so it's just a case of everything coming together in a race. That's why I'm looking forward to the next one.

John Hopkins - Kawasaki Racing - DNF
After practice and qualifying I really thought we could come away from Le Mans with a good result, which makes today even more frustrating. I got a pretty good start, and was then able to make up places by passing on the brakes, but there are still a number of areas where we're losing out, on acceleration out of the turns for example, and this makes it difficult to make a pass stick. It's no fun holding off someone like Lorenzo for a whole lap, only to see him motor past you as soon as you get onto the straight. We need to work on these areas, starting with tomorrow's test, and we need to make some improvements if we're to increase our competitiveness. As for the chain, I guess that was just bad luck. Now we need to find out why it failed, so we can avoid the same problem in the future. Finally, I'd like to apologise to Loris for the pass I put on him, which was a little bit hard. Sorry Loris!

James Toseland - Tech 3 Yamaha - DNF
I'm pretty frustrated because a little mistake ruins all the hard work myself and the team have put in. I wish I could have a second go at it now like you get in World Superbikes! I got a great start and really wanted to try and get away with the leaders but I lost a couple of places when John Hopkins came by with a hard but fair move. Andrea then made a small mistake and went slightly wide at the fourth corner and as I tried to go underneath him he came back on line and took my front wheel. It was just a racing incident but very disappointing because after that good start I felt like I could have got a good result. I'm already looking forward to coming back strongly at Mugello and having done a bit of testing there before it won't be completely alien for me. Congratulations to Colin because he has been awesome all weekend. He has been on the pace since pre-season testing and he's deserved that podium, as has the team for all their effort. It was great for Yamaha to dominate the podium so it proves what great work was done in the winter.

2008 French MotoGP Results
 1.  Rossi       Yamaha    (B)  44:30.799
 2.  Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  +   4.997
 3.  Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  +   6.805
 4.  Pedrosa     Honda     (M)  +  10.157
 5.  Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  +  21.762
 6.  Dovizioso   Honda     (M)  +  22.395
 7.  Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  +  27.806
 8.  Hayden      Honda     (M)  +  27.995
 9.  de Puniet   Honda     (M)  +  29.344
10.  Nakano      Honda     (B)  +  30.822
11.  Elias       Ducati    (B)  +  35.154
12.  de Angelis  Honda     (B)  +  36.216
13.  Guintoli    Ducati    (B)  +  52.038
14.  West        Kawasaki  (B)  + 1:29.307
15.  Melandri    Ducati    (B)  +  1 lap
16.  Stoner      Ducati    (B)  +  2 laps
17.  Hopkins     Kawasaki  (B)  DNF/Retired - 16 laps
18.  Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  DNF/Crash - 2 laps

World Championship Point Standings (After 5 of 18 races):
 1. Rossi      97 points
 2. Lorenzo    94
 3. Pedrosa    94
 4. Stoner     56
 5. Edwards    47
 6. Capirossi  42
 7. Hayden     37
 8. Dovizioso  36
 9. Toseland   33
10. Nakano     28