Jorge Lorenzo battled the extreme wet conditions to take out the 2012 Monster Energy Drink Grand Prix de French at Le Mans.

Lorenzo took command early charging past Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa (who started from Pole) and reigning World Champion Casey Stoner. 

The Spaniard opened up a hand lead early and was in no threat of being caught as he handled the wet conditions with ease. 

Not the case for local hero Randy De Puniet. The Frenchman encountered wheel spin from the starting grid resulting in a few big ‘tank slaps’ and crashed out on the starting line. He then jumped the Pit Wall and illegally rejoined the race for his fans.

Upfront, Lorenzo had pulled away, Stoner was in second and Valentino Rossi along with Monster Tech 3 teammates Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow had pushed Pedrosa back to 6th.

Stoner, Rossi, Dovizioso and Crutchlow all grouped up before Stoner got the hurry-up from the pits and broke free opening up a handy gap.

With 16 laps to go Rossi, Dovizioso and Crutchlow all took it in turns to hold 3rd place chopping and changing positions with some quality riding in horrible conditions. 

With 10 laps remaining, it all got a bit too much for Crutchlow at the back of the pack of 3 as he applied a little too much pressure on the front brake coming into a left hander and slid out into the gravel. 

Dovizioso would then later crash himself so with the two Monster Tech 3 riders off his back, Rossi could then concentrate on catching Casey Stoner in 2nd. 

It appeared Rossi had his Ducati on tracks as he cut down Stoners gap and with 5 laps to go there was a battle for a higher step on the podium.

Jorge Lorenzo was having his own day out up front and no on near him as Rossi and Stoner traded positions behind him. 

On the last lap Rossi finally got the better of Stoner and got enough drive out of 2 consecutive corners to hold off Stoner for his first podium with Ducati since Le Mans last year.

Lorenzo took the chequered flag and the over championship lead with Rossi and Stoner picking up the minor honours.

Pedrosa limped home in 4th, Stefa Bradl claimed 5th, Nicky Hayden took advantage of other riders misfortunes coming in at 6 after starting in 11th and the Monster Tech 3 riders of Dovizioso and Crutchlow were able to recover from earlier crashes to tak 7th and 8th respectively.

After the race Lorenzo said: “It was really difficult to hold concentration today,”

“The race feels much longer [in the wet] and you have to remember where the corners are slippery each lap. If you forget one you can crash very easily.”

Rossi said in the post race press conference that he “knew that today I’d have a special chance to fight for the podium in these conditions because the bike is always good in the wet,”

“I had some problems with the visor at one time but when I fixed that problem, I could push and I had good pace, so I managed to pass Stoner. This second place is very important for me and for all the guys from Ducati.”

Stoner commented on the battle for second saying “I enjoyed the battle with Valentino at the end, there was clean overtaking and we swapped positions a few times, but in the end we knew that Valentino had better pace than us and after he passed there was no way I could stay with him.”