"I didn't look at my pit board, I could tell by crowd's reaction" at French MotoGP

The sixth round of the 2025 MotoGP season takes the championship to France and the iconic Le Mans venue.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing first took place at Le Mans in 1920, almost three decades before the world championship as we know it today was formed in 1949.

While Le Mans featured on the 1949 racing schedule for grand prix machinery, it was not an official event. The first official French GP in the modern world championship took place in 1951 at Albi.

Numerous venues hosted French GPs in the ensuing years, with Le Mans making a return in 1969 at the Bugatti Circuit.

It hosted the French GP on and off until 2000, when it became the permanent home of the event. MotoGP has come to Le Mans every year since, even during the 2020 COVID year.

In the last two years, Le Mans has set new attendance records for MotoGP, with last year seeing the benchmark set at 297,471.

“It’s one of those races that you hear about since you’re a little kid all the way up. And when you get there, it’s like ‘woah’,” three-time 500cc world champion Kenny Roberts told MotoGP’s official website.

One-time 500cc world champion Kevin Schwantz won at Le Mans in 1990 on a Suzuki added: “It’s such an historic venue, Le Mans, and when you hear that, all the great drivers that have been there and so many people who have crossed that finish line - whether it be first or second or last.

“I won a couple of grands prix at Le Mans.

“Always the French Grand Prix, maybe it wasn’t one of my favourite places to race, it wasn’t a race we were consistently good.

“It’s a track I used to like because it involved a lot of hard braking and that was always a strong point of my bike.

“But, man, did it have some atmosphere for sure.”

French MotoGP hailed by legends

Freddie Spencer won at Le Mans twice in one day in 1985 in the 250cc and 500cc classes, with the race in the former against home favourite Christian Sarron.

The double 500cc world champion experienced first hand that day just how passionate the Le Mans crowd is.

“Le Mans, you feel real close to the fans, so you feel the energy,” he said.

“I won the French Grand Prix at Le Mans.

“It’s one of the races in that year where I won both races in the same day. In the 500cc race, I had a great battle with Wayne Gardner and then Christian Sarron.

“I could literally hear the crowd, I could see the crowd when Christian was catching me, because we were in France and he was the defending 250cc champion.

“I didn’t have to look at my pit board - I could tell by the crowd’s reaction that he was catching me.”