Franco Morbidelli: “I want to see how I feel on the bike” at Le Mans MotoGP
Franco Morbidelli awaits medical clearance to ride at French MotoGP after neck injury at Jerez.
Franco Morbidelli is aiming to return to action at this weekend’s French MotoGP, but the VR46 Ducati rider must first pass a mandatory medical check on Thursday at Le Mans following his heavy crash in the Spanish Grand Prix.
“I feel better, but I want to see how I feel on the bike. I'm looking forward to carrying out our clean work program and having the two races at our best,” he said.
Morbidelli was stretchered away from his second heavy fall of the weekend and later diagnosed with a “neck contusion”, ruling him out of Monday’s official post-race test.
The incident also brought an end to Morbidelli’s perfect 2025 run of points finishes, leaving Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia as the only riders to have scored in all ten races so far this season.
Despite the DNF, Morbidelli retains fourth in the world championship standings, although his advantage over team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio has narrowed to 21 points.
“Le Mans is another really important race for us. We are looking for continuing our great pace and speed, so the goal is to do a really good job there,” said Morbidelli.
“I like the track, last year I had a nice comeback [to seventh] in the main race, so I’m confident looking at the track.”
While Morbidelli was sidelined, di Giannantonio joined Bagnaia and Marc Marquez in evaluating updates for the factory-spec GP25 during the Jerez test.
“Le Mans is a beautiful historic track, where you go fast and there is a lot of braking. I think we will be able to use already in France the solutions we found in the Jerez test,” di Giannantonio said.
“So, I'm curious to see how the bike updates will be. In Le Mans we can do really well, last year we fought for the podium, then there will be a lot of fans and a lot of energy. So we will have fun.”
Ducati has been unbeaten at Le Mans for the past five years, with independent riders winning for the past three years: Gresini’s Enea Bastianini in 2022, VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi in 2023 and Pramac’s Jorge Martin in 2024.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
