# 2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix

The 2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 18–20 May 2012 at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France. In a press conference on the Thursday before the race, Casey Stoner announced his retirement from the sport at the end of the season. He went on to finish third in the MotoGP race, handing the championship lead to Jorge Lorenzo, the race winner. Valentino Rossi took second place for his first podium since the previous year's race. Thomas Lüthi and Louis Rossi won the Moto2 and Moto3 races respectively. This was the 800th race to contribute to the Grand Prix motorcycle racing championship.

## Classification
### MotoGP

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 28 | 49:39.743 | 4 | 25 |
| 2 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Ducati Team | Ducati | 28 | +9.905 | 7 | 20 |
| 3 | 1 | Casey Stoner | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 28 | +11.298 | 2 | 16 |
| 4 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 28 | +29.361 | 1 | 13 |
| 5 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 28 | +32.477 | 13 | 11 |
| 6 | 69 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati Team | Ducati | 28 | +32.842 | 11 | 10 |
| 7 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 28 | +59.759 | 3 | 9 |
| 8 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 28 | +1:05.152 | 5 | 8 |
| 9 | 8 | Héctor Barberá | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 28 | +1:07.846 | 9 | 7 |
| 10 | 19 | Álvaro Bautista | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 28 | +1:13.193 | 8 | 6 |
| 11 | 77 | James Ellison | Paul Bird Motorsport | ART | 28 | +1:26.663 | 16 | 5 |
| 12 | 54 | Mattia Pasini | Speed Master | ART | 28 | +1:27.633 | 20 | 4 |
| 13 | 41 | Aleix Espargaró | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 27 | +1 lap | 17 | 3 |
| 14 | 51 | Michele Pirro | San Carlo Honda Gresini | FTR | 27 | +1 lap | 14 | 2 |
| 15 | 68 | Yonny Hernández | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 27 | +1 lap | 15 | 1 |
| 16 | 11 | Ben Spies | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 27 | +1 lap | 6 | |
| 17 | 7 | Chris Vermeulen | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | Suter | 26 | +2 laps | 21 | |
| 18 | 22 | Iván Silva | Avintia Blusens | BQR | 26 | +2 laps | 19 | |
| Ret | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Avintia Blusens | Ioda | 24 | Accident | 18 | |
| Ret | 14 | Randy de Puniet | Power Electronics Aspar | ART | 22 | Accident | 12 | |
| Ret | 17 | Karel Abraham | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 11 | Retirement | 10 | |
| Sources: |||||||||

### Moto2

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 12 | Thomas Lüthi | Suter | 26 | 50:02.816 | 2 | 25 |
| 2 | 71 | Claudio Corti | Kalex | 26 | +6.354 | 9 | 20 |
| 3 | 45 | Scott Redding | Kalex | 26 | +12.162 | 4 | 16 |
| 4 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Speed Up | 26 | +16.338 | 5 | 13 |
| 5 | 36 | Mika Kallio | Kalex | 26 | +19.278 | 6 | 11 |
| 6 | 40 | Pol Espargaró | Kalex | 26 | +20.874 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | 76 | Max Neukirchner | Kalex | 26 | +28.117 | 26 | 9 |
| 8 | 14 | Ratthapark Wilairot | Suter | 26 | +38.317 | 28 | 8 |
| 9 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Tech 3 | 26 | +40.940 | 19 | 7 |
| 10 | 80 | Esteve Rabat | Kalex | 26 | +44.077 | 18 | 6 |
| 11 | 24 | Toni Elías | Suter | 26 | +59.583 | 10 | 5 |
| 12 | 60 | Julián Simón | Suter | 26 | +1:01.785 | 11 | 4 |
| 13 | 18 | Nicolás Terol | Suter | 26 | +1:03.430 | 17 | 3 |
| 14 | 77 | Dominique Aegerter | Suter | 26 | +1:10.341 | 12 | 2 |
| 15 | 44 | Roberto Rolfo | Suter | 26 | +1:22.145 | 21 | 1 |
| 16 | 49 | Axel Pons | Kalex | 26 | +1:46.994 | 16 | |
| 17 | 72 | Yuki Takahashi | Suter | 25 | +1 lap | 20 | |
| 18 | 10 | Marco Colandrea | FTR | 25 | +1 lap | 31 | |
| DSQ | 95 | Anthony West | Moriwaki | 26 | (+21.705) | 27 | |
| Ret | 5 | Johann Zarco | Motobi | 21 | Accident | 8 | |
| Ret | 82 | Elena Rosell | Moriwaki | 18 | Accident | 30 | |
| Ret | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Kalex | 17 | Accident | 24 | |
| Ret | 63 | Mike Di Meglio | Speed Up | 16 | Accident | 22 | |
| Ret | 88 | Ricard Cardús | AJR | 13 | Accident | 15 | |
| Ret | 93 | Marc Márquez | Suter | 11 | Retirement | 1 | |
| Ret | 8 | Gino Rea | Suter | 7 | Accident | 23 | |
| Ret | 7 | Alexander Lundh | MZ-RE Honda | 7 | Retirement | 25 | |
| Ret | 15 | Alex de Angelis | Suter | 3 | Accident | 7 | |
| Ret | 47 | Ángel Rodríguez | Bimota | 2 | Accident | 29 | |
| Ret | 3 | Simone Corsi | FTR | 2 | Retirement | 14 | |
| Ret | 4 | Randy Krummenacher | Kalex | 1 | Retirement | 13 | |
| DNS | 19 | Xavier Siméon | Tech 3 | | | | |
| OFFICIAL MOTO2 REPORT ||||||||

### Moto3

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 96 | Louis Rossi | FTR Honda | 24 | 49:12.390 | 15 | 25 |
| 2 | 23 | Alberto Moncayo | Kalex KTM | 24 | +27.348 | 7 | 20 |
| 3 | 42 | Álex Rins | Suter Honda | 24 | +28.899 | 26 | 16 |
| 4 | 27 | Niccolò Antonelli | FTR Honda | 24 | +33.195 | 27 | 13 |
| 5 | 61 | Arthur Sissis | KTM | 24 | +36.989 | 14 | 11 |
| 6 | 11 | Sandro Cortese | KTM | 24 | +45.312 | 6 | 10 |
| 7 | 53 | Jasper Iwema | FGR Honda | 24 | +58.645 | 25 | 9 |
| 8 | 89 | Alan Techer | TSR Honda | 24 | +1:05.022 | 18 | 8 |
| 9 | 21 | Iván Moreno | FTR Honda | 24 | +1:09.194 | 29 | 7 |
| 10 | 30 | Giulian Pedone | Suter Honda | 24 | +1:45.751 | 19 | 6 |
| 11 | 94 | Jonas Folger | Ioda | 23 | +1 lap | 11 | 5 |
| 12 | 77 | Marcel Schrötter | Mahindra | 23 | +1 lap | 32 | 4 |
| 13 | 86 | Kevin Hanus | Honda | 23 | +1 lap | 30 | 3 |
| 14 | 19 | Alessandro Tonucci | FTR Honda | 22 | +2 laps | 23 | 2 |
| 15 | 31 | Niklas Ajo | KTM | 20 | +4 laps | 13 | 1 |
| Ret | 63 | Zulfahmi Khairuddin | KTM | 17 | Accident | 10 | |
| Ret | 25 | Maverick Viñales | FTR Honda | 16 | Accident | 1 | |
| Ret | 44 | Miguel Oliveira | Suter Honda | 15 | Accident | 3 | |
| Ret | 39 | Luis Salom | Kalex KTM | 13 | Accident | 9 | |
| Ret | 55 | Héctor Faubel | Kalex KTM | 12 | Accident | 8 | |
| Ret | 84 | Jakub Kornfeil | FTR Honda | 12 | Accident | 4 | |
| Ret | 32 | Isaac Viñales | FTR Honda | 12 | Accident | 20 | |
| Ret | 26 | Adrián Martín | FTR Honda | 8 | Accident | 12 | |
| Ret | 8 | Jack Miller | Honda | 8 | Retirement | 22 | |
| Ret | 15 | Simone Grotzkyj | Suter Honda | 7 | Accident | 24 | |
| Ret | 99 | Danny Webb | Mahindra | 7 | Retirement | 31 | |
| Ret | 52 | Danny Kent | KTM | 5 | Accident | 17 | |
| Ret | 5 | Romano Fenati | FTR Honda | 2 | Accident | 21 | |
| Ret | 10 | Alexis Masbou | Honda | 1 | Accident | 5 | |
| Ret | 51 | Kenta Fujii | TSR Honda | 1 | Accident | 28 | |
| Ret | 41 | Brad Binder | Kalex KTM | 0 | Accident | 16 | |
| Ret | 3 | Luigi Morciano | Ioda | 0 | Retirement | 33 | |
| DNS | 7 | Efrén Vázquez | FTR Honda | | | 2 | |
| DNS | 9 | Toni Finsterbusch | Honda | | | | |
| OFFICIAL MOTO3 REPORT ||||||||

## Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round four has concluded.
| Pos. | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Jorge Lorenzo | 90 |
| 2 | Casey Stoner | 82 |
| 3 | Dani Pedrosa | 65 |
| 4 | Cal Crutchlow | 45 |
| 5 | Andrea Dovizioso | 44 |
| Pos. | Constructor | Points |
| 1 | Yamaha | 90 |
| 2 | Honda | 86 |
| 3 | Ducati | 47 |
| 4 | ART | 16 |
| 5 | Suter | 4 |
* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.