11/05/2025

Gonzalez dominates at Le Mans with a superb start-finish victory, Agius fights his way into the points

Manuel Gonzalez took a triumphant victory in the Moto2 race at the traditional Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, his third win of the season - much to the delight of his LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP team. Team-mate Senna Agius showed fighting spirit and secured further championship points with 14th place.

He is the dominator of the moment: Manuel Gonzalez. With this third win of the season, the Spaniard impressively underlines his current dominance in Moto2. Since the start of the season, the 22-year-old has been consistently riding in the leading group and was also in a league of his own at the French Grand Prix on the 4.19-kilometre circuit. After briefly losing a position to Diego Moreira directly after the start, the world championship leader took the lead again on the fourth lap and kept it until the very end. Gonzalez crossed the finish line unchallenged ahead of Barry Baltus and Aron Canet and secured a further 25 championship points. Gonzalez thus extends his lead in the World Championship and goes into the next round at Silverstone from 23rd to 25th of May with plenty of confidence. There he wants to prove his impressive consistency and pace once again and further consolidate his title ambitions.

After a challenging qualifying session, team-mate Senna Agius started the 22-lap race from 14th position, which took place under cloudy skies but on a dry track. After a mixed start, the Australian initially lost a few places, but fought his way back to 13th place. A long lap penalty for taking a short cut in turn 9 temporarily dropped him back to 19th place. The 19-year-old showed great fighting spirit to get back into the points and take two more points home towards the British Grand Prix.

Results

Race
1. Manuel GONZALEZ/ SPA/ KALEX
2. Barry BALTUS/ BEL/ KALEX – (+1.811)
3. Aron CANET/ SPA/ KALEX – (+6.113)
14. Senna AGIUS/ AUS/ KALEX - (+18.683)

World Championship
1. GONZALEZ Manuel/ SPA – 111
2. CANET Aron/ SPA – 95
3. DIXON Jake/ GBR – 77
8. AGIUS Senna/ AUS – 39

Team Classification
1. FANTIC RACING LINO SONEGO – 168
2. LIQUI MOLY DYNAVOLT INTACT GP – 150
3. ELF MARC VDS RACING TEAM – 105

Manuel Gonzalez

P1
Moto2 World Championship 2025 - P1 - 111 Points

"It feels great because it was the most difficult win of the season so far. I didn't feel as good as yesterday, but I just tried to adapt my riding and take the corners like I always do. Another point was not to go over the limit, because it was easy to lose the front in some places. But now I'm over the moon because at least we achieved our goal and that was to win. The third win of the season is incredible. But it is the reward for the good work we are doing as a team. Winning here at Le Mans is special for me because I really enjoy racing here, even though it was difficult because other riders were closer. So in two weeks at Silverstone, we will continue to work like this. Sometimes I expected Baltus to overtake me because in some corners I could hear his bike. In cooler conditions like today, it's easier to follow a rider because of the tyre temperature. My tyres were a bit too cold though. But in the last five laps I had that little extra to open up a small gap and enjoy the race. It also started to rain slightly in the last sector of the last lap. So, it was also a bit dangerous, but I managed it well. Finally, a big thank you to the team."

Senna Agius

P14 - (+18.683)
Moto2 World Championship 2025 - P8 - 39 Points

"A tough race! I did my best to catch up after the long lap, but I made a mistake. I didn't give the rider who overtook me enough time to get past me again. That's why I had to take a short cut and got a long lap penalty. After that, I just tried to score as many points as possible. Unfortunately, Le Mans was not an easy weekend. I'm pretty annoyed about how the race went for us. But I tried not to give up. We just have to stay strong and keep focusing because we are working really well. We just need to find some consistency with the feeling. So, we need to stay strong and re-start at Silverstone and hopefully have another good weekend there."

Jürgen Lingg

Team Manager

"It's not presumptuous to say that everything is going like clockwork for Manu at the moment. A commanding pole position with a respectable gap like yesterday doesn't happen often in Moto2. Nevertheless, the race today was very exciting. The race is always a different story because it's primarily about a high rhythm. That also worked out, although the original idea would have been for Manu to come back first from the first lap. But a few other riders had something against it. So, Manu first had to fight his way past these opponents, which wasn't easy. After that, he reeled off lap after lap like clockwork, but that wasn't child's play either, as Baltus didn't give up right behind him. Manu always felt a certain amount of pressure until Baltus had to back off a little. Of course, that was also good for our blood pressure in the last three laps. Until then, it was a really exciting race. Congratulations to Manu and the whole team for their top performance."
"Senna's qualifying wasn't bad, but it wasn't perfect either. Nevertheless, we knew about his pace, because the lap times were great. But with long laps like that, you simply lose too much time that you can't make up. At least Senna still scored points and showed that the speed is there. Next time at Silverstone, we'll try to put that on paper again with him and do better."

Pictures Moto2 - Sunday French GP 2025

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