2002 French motorcycle Grand Prix

The 2002 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2002 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 17–19 May 2002 at the Bugatti Circuit located in Le Mans, France.

Date19 May 2002

Official namePolini Grand Prix de France^[1]^[2]^[3]

LocationBugatti Circuit

Course

Permanent racing facility
4.180 km (2.597 mi)

Quick facts Race details, Date ...

2002 French Grand Prix

Race details

Race 4 of 16 races in the
2002 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

Date

19 May 2002

Official name

Polini Grand Prix de France^[1]^[2]^[3]

Location

Bugatti Circuit

Course

Permanent racing facility
4.180 km (2.597 mi)

MotoGP

Pole position
Rider	Valentino Rossi	Honda
Time	1:36.046
Fastest lap
Rider	Valentino Rossi	Honda
Time	1:36.846 on lap 7
Podium
First	Valentino Rossi	Honda
Second	Tohru Ukawa	Honda
Third	Max Biaggi	Yamaha

250cc

Pole position
Rider	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia
Time	1:38.903
Fastest lap
Rider	Marco Melandri	Aprilia
Time	1:39.648 on lap 24
Podium
First	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia
Second	Marco Melandri	Aprilia
Third	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia

125cc

Pole position
Rider	Manuel Poggiali	Gilera
Time	1:44.002
Fastest lap
Rider	Masao Azuma	Honda
Time	1:44.259 on lap 17
Podium
First	Lucio Cecchinello	Aprilia
Second	Manuel Poggiali	Gilera
Third	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda

Close

MotoGP classification

Jean-Michel Bayle replaced Garry McCoy from the second practice session.^[4]

The race was stopped for rain after 21 of the 28 scheduled laps; however sufficient distance was covered in order for full points to be awarded.

More information Pos., No. ...

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	46	Valentino Rossi	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	21	34:22.335	1	25
2	11	Tohru Ukawa	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	21	+0.217	4	20
3	3	Max Biaggi	Marlboro Yamaha Team	Yamaha	21	+0.604	3	16
4	6	Norifumi Abe	Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antín	Yamaha	21	+1.701	12	13
5	10	Kenny Roberts Jr.	Telefónica Movistar Suzuki	Suzuki	21	+8.464	9	11
6	9	Nobuatsu Aoki	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	21	+10.212	11	10
7	65	Loris Capirossi	West Honda Pons	Honda	21	+12.437	7	9
8	4	Alex Barros	West Honda Pons	Honda	21	+15.231	15	8
9	55	Régis Laconi	MS Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	21	+17.155	14	7
10	99	Jeremy McWilliams	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	21	+21.847	6	6
11	21	John Hopkins	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha	21	+25.121	19	5
12	15	Sete Gibernau	Telefónica Movistar Suzuki	Suzuki	21	+25.919	16	4
13	56	Shinya Nakano	Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	21	+26.227	10	3
14	18	Jean-Michel Bayle	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha	21	+27.011	18	2
15	17	Jurgen van den Goorbergh	Kanemoto Racing	Honda	21	+30.342	17	1
16	30	José Luis Cardoso	Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antín	Yamaha	21	+36.574	20
Ret (17)	74	Daijiro Kato	Fortuna Honda Gresini	Honda	11	Accident	5
Ret (18)	19	Olivier Jacque	Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	10	Retirement	13
Ret (19)	31	Tetsuya Harada	Pramac Honda Racing Team	Honda	10	Retirement	8
Ret (20)	7	Carlos Checa	Marlboro Yamaha Team	Yamaha	8	Accident	2
Sources: ^[5]^[6]^[7]

Close

250 cc classification

More information Pos., No. ...

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	10	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia	26	43:41.140	1	25
2	3	Marco Melandri	Aprilia	26	+0.252	4	20
3	17	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia	26	+6.431	2	16
4	15	Roberto Locatelli	Aprilia	26	+6.604	3	13
5	4	Roberto Rolfo	Honda	26	+11.527	12	11
6	24	Toni Elías	Aprilia	26	+13.157	5	10
7	7	Emilio Alzamora	Honda	26	+13.870	15	9
8	9	Sebastián Porto	Yamaha	26	+20.077	9	8
9	6	Alex Debón	Aprilia	26	+28.557	11	7
10	42	David Checa	Aprilia	26	+28.684	17	6
11	8	Naoki Matsudo	Yamaha	26	+28.892	10	5
12	76	Taro Sekiguchi	Yamaha	26	+35.148	13	4
13	18	Shahrol Yuzy	Yamaha	26	+35.344	14	3
14	32	Héctor Faubel	Aprilia	26	+56.484	19	2
15	12	Jay Vincent	Honda	26	+56.894	16	1
16	25	Vincent Philippe	Aprilia	26	+1:08.156	20
17	41	Jarno Janssen	Honda	26	+1:08.390	22
18	28	Dirk Heidolf	Aprilia	26	+1:16.135	23
19	22	Raúl Jara	Aprilia	26	+1:18.040	21
20	36	Erwan Nigon	Honda	25	+1 lap	24
Ret (21)	35	Thierry Van Den Bosch	Aprilia	13	Retirement	18
Ret (22)	27	Casey Stoner	Aprilia	9	Accident	7
Ret (23)	21	Franco Battaini	Aprilia	9	Accident	6
Ret (24)	11	Haruchika Aoki	Honda	4	Retirement	8
Ret (25)	19	Leon Haslam	Honda	2	Retirement	25
DNQ	37	Yann Lussiana	Honda		Did not qualify
DNQ	45	Samuel Aubry	Honda		Did not qualify
DNQ	93	Hervé Mora	Aprilia		Did not qualify
DNQ	51	Hugo Marchand	Aprilia		Did not qualify
Source: ^[8]

Close

125 cc classification

More information Pos., No. ...

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Lucio Cecchinello	Aprilia	24	42:09.029	4	25
2	1	Manuel Poggiali	Gilera	24	+0.076	1	20
3	26	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda	24	+0.604	3	16
4	21	Arnaud Vincent	Aprilia	24	+0.865	5	13
5	5	Masao Azuma	Honda	24	+0.943	2	11
6	22	Pablo Nieto	Aprilia	24	+1.618	7	10
7	33	Stefano Bianco	Aprilia	24	+3.769	20	9
8	36	Mika Kallio	Honda	24	+8.680	21	8
9	34	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	24	+8.915	11	7
10	23	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	24	+9.534	8	6
11	17	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	24	+11.749	16	5
12	6	Mirko Giansanti	Honda	24	+20.252	13	4
13	11	Max Sabbatani	Aprilia	24	+32.082	19	3
14	12	Klaus Nöhles	Honda	24	+35.206	27	2
15	80	Héctor Barberá	Aprilia	24	+49.526	22	1
16	50	Andrea Ballerini	Honda	24	+1:02.359	24
17	84	Michel Fabrizio	Gilera	24	+1:07.571	26
18	57	Chaz Davies	Aprilia	24	+1:10.303	23
19	48	Jorge Lorenzo	Derbi	24	+1:10.998	29
20	86	Grégory Lefort	Aprilia	24	+1:11.479	31
21	31	Mattia Angeloni	Gilera	24	+1:36.333	32
22	20	Imre Tóth	Honda	24	+1:41.034	35
23	63	Jimmy Petit	Honda	24	+1:42.517	33
24	85	Grégory Leblanc	Honda	23	+1 lap	37
25	58	Yoann Tiberio	Honda	23	+1 lap	36
Ret (26)	15	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	11	Accident	6
Ret (27)	39	Jaroslav Huleš	Aprilia	11	Accident	15
Ret (28)	16	Simone Sanna	Aprilia	10	Accident	12
Ret (29)	25	Joan Olivé	Honda	10	Accident	14
Ret (30)	19	Alex Baldolini	Aprilia	10	Accident	30
Ret (31)	47	Ángel Rodríguez	Aprilia	8	Accident	9
Ret (32)	41	Youichi Ui	Derbi	8	Accident	10
Ret (33)	8	Gábor Talmácsi	Italjet	5	Accident	18
Ret (34)	9	Noboru Ueda	Honda	5	Accident	17
Ret (35)	7	Stefano Perugini	Italjet	4	Retirement	28
Ret (36)	18	Jakub Smrž	Honda	0	Retirement	25
Ret (37)	59	Vincent Braillard	Honda	0	Accident	34
Source: ^[9]