The 2025 MotoGP season continues to bloom for KTM’s factory effort at the highest level of FIM world championship competition. A record-breaking 311,000 fans loaded the spectator areas at Le Mans for a chaotic wet French Grand Prix and saw Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pedro Acosta take 4th for his best result of the campaign and Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Maverick Viñales finish 5th. Jose Antonio Rueda‘s last corner attack led to his fourth Moto3™ victory of 2025 with the KTM RC4 and extend his advantage at the peak of the championship.
Le Mans maintained its fantastic bulge of spectators, excitement and anticipation for the third and final day of the French Grand Prix and an exciting race program. In contrast to a sunny and bright Saturday, the Sarthe skies were cloudy and showery, which created upheaval for the premier class. Despite the climate, the large crowd still gathered en masse for the outing that brings the series beyond the quarter mark for the 2025 campaign.
Red Bull KTM slotted three riders onto the first five rows of the start grid for the 27-lap affair around the famous 4.1km Bugatti layout, which forms part of the hallowed 24hr course. Maverick Viñales in P5 was followed by Pedro Acosta in P12, Brad Binder in P13 and then Enea Bastianini P18. The weather created some uncertainty and watchful looks at the sky and radar systems. Morning Warm-up was soaking but Le Mans was kind enough to Moto3 and Moto2 to provide a dry track. Rainfall again caused indecision when MotoGP took to the grid. The new rule system for race starts came into play as the GP was briefly delayed and riders changed from wet to dry machines. Viñales and Acosta then reentered pitlane for a second time inside the first five laps of the reduced 26-lap distance to exchange bikes with wet settings as more showers arrived.
When the race finally settled into a rhythm in the wake of motorcycle swaps and double long lap penalties, Acosta was able to keep steady and try for the podium, running P3 until his rear tire choice proved to be a drawback, dropping him to P4 and Viñales made it home in P5. Bastianini slipped off twice and also had two long lap penalties. The Italian kept motoring and finished P13. Binder crashed into Turn 14 and then again shortly afterwards in Turn 1 to end his day early.
MotoGP’s blend with heritage, and the challenge of world-renowned circuits flows into the sixth date of the year with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks.
Pedro Acosta, 4th and 9th in the championship standings: “Wrong tire today. The start was OK, the comeback was OK and the rhythm in the wet also, but when there was more water on track suddenly it was a mess and the grip was not there. It was super-difficult to understand why the first sector was so slippery and the rest was quite OK! We survived. Generally, a positive weekend but we’re quite sad. We go to the next one.”
Maverick Viñales, 5th and 11th in the championship standings: “One of my best results so far in a flag-to-flag, so I am more than happy. Also, I’m pleased with the feeling I get with the dry laps and the potential was very high, unfortunately when we switched to the rain tires our speed was a bit slower and we could not fight for the podium. I had edge grip but could not get the traction I wanted in a straight line and I have no explanation for that. These are the kinds of races we need to build-up and be solid. To ride the bike here was really nice.”
Enea Bastianini, 13th and 15th in the championship standings: “Crazy race! And difficult for everybody because the situation on track was on the limit. Our decision to start with the slick seemed the right one. I had the crash and mistake with Pecco [Bagnaia] and then crashed again. I was a bit lucky to be able to take the wet bike and I thought ‘let’s do the maximum’ but I had two sets of long laps; one because we did not have the limiter engaged for the pitlane. Our strategy in the end was probably not the right one but my feeling was good on a slippery track in the wet.”
Brad Binder, DNF and 14th in the championship standings: “Not too much to say. My race was a lot shorter than I would have liked. Very tricky to understand what tires we should have had at the beginning. We had wets, came in for slicks and I thought things were going quite well but into the last corner there was a bit more water than I expected and it just slipped away. I picked up, did my two long laps and was planning to come in but it just washed in Turn 1. It was time to have been on the wets! Sometimes things do not work out, and sorry to my team because they deserved a good result after all their efforts lately. We’ll try again in Silverstone.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “More progression. Technically we are clearer than where we were at the start of the season and I feel our riders have more confidence to chase the top results. Le Mans is often not the easiest place to make a solid weekend because the conditions can change so much: the race today was a bit special! But the weekend was constant for our work. We made the top five and I’m sure we had the pace to go for even better. We have potential for the next races and we go to Silverstone with confidence.”
