2001 French motorcycle Grand Prix explained

Grand Prix:	French
Flag:	France
Official Name:	Grand Prix Polini de France^[1] ^[2]
Location:	Bugatti Circuit
Course Mi:	2.676
Course Km:	4.305
Race No:	4
Season No:	16
Date:	20 May
Year:	2001
Pole Rider 500:	Max Biaggi
Pole Rider 500 Country:	Italy
Pole Time 500:	1:38.421
Fast Rider 500:	Max Biaggi
Fast Rider 500 Country:	Italy
Fast Time 500:	1:39.954 on lap 16
First Rider 500:	Max Biaggi
First Rider 500 Country:	Italy
Second Rider 500:	Carlos Checa
Second Rider 500 Country:	Spain
Third Rider 500:	Valentino Rossi
Third Rider 500 Country:	Italy
Pole Rider 250:	Daijiro Kato
Pole Rider 250 Country:	Japan
Pole Time 250:	1:41.065
Fast Rider 250:	Daijiro Kato
Fast Rider 250 Country:	Japan
Fast Time 250:	1:41.473 on lap 26
First Rider 250:	Daijiro Kato
First Rider 250 Country:	Japan
Second Rider 250:	Tetsuya Harada
Second Rider 250 Country:	Japan
Third Rider 250:	Marco Melandri
Third Rider 250 Country:	Italy
Pole Rider 125:	Youichi Ui
Pole Rider 125 Country:	Japan
Pole Time 125:	1:47.494
Fast Rider 125:	Lucio Cecchinello
Fast Rider 125 Country:	Italy
Fast Time 125:	1:47.766 on lap 10
First Rider 125:	Manuel Poggiali
First Rider 125 Country:	San Marino
Second Rider 125:	Mirko Giansanti
Second Rider 125 Country:	Italy
Third Rider 125:	Toni Elías
Third Rider 125 Country:	Spain

The 2001 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2001 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 18–20 May 2001 at the Bugatti Circuit.

500 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Max Biaggi	Marlboro Yamaha Team	Yamaha	28	46:59.346	1	25
2	7	Carlos Checa	Marlboro Yamaha Team	Yamaha	28	+3.266	5	20
3	46	Valentino Rossi	Nastro Azzurro Honda	Honda	28	+4.830	3	16
4	6	Norick Abe	Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin	Yamaha	28	+14.561	7	13
5	28	Àlex Crivillé	Repsol YPF Honda Team	Honda	28	+14.977	9	11
6	1	Kenny Roberts Jr.	Telefónica Movistar Suzuki	Suzuki	28	+23.180	2	10
7	65	Loris Capirossi	West Honda Pons	Honda	28	+29.597	8	9
8	4	Alex Barros	West Honda Pons	Honda	28	+31.205	12	8
9	15	Sete Gibernau	Telefónica Movistar Suzuki	Suzuki	28	+32.499	13	7
10	17	Jurgen van den Goorbergh	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	28	+33.019	10	6
11	56	Shinya Nakano	Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	28	+36.476	4	5
12	8	Chris Walker	Shell Advance Honda	Honda	28	+1:15.798	15	4
13	10	José Luis Cardoso	Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin	Yamaha	28	+1:19.446	14	3
14	21	Barry Veneman	Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team	Honda	27	+1 lap	19	2
15	32	Jarno Janssen	Arie Molenaar Racing	Honda	27	+1 lap	20	1
Ret	24	Jason Vincent	Pulse GP	Pulse	16	Retirement	16
Ret	68	Mark Willis	Pulse GP	Pulse	15	Retirement	18
Ret	11	Tohru Ukawa	Repsol YPF Honda Team	Honda	10	Accident	11
Ret	41	Noriyuki Haga	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha	10	Accident	6
Ret	16	Johan Stigefelt	Sabre Sport	Sabre V4	2	Retirement	17
DNS	5	Garry McCoy	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha		Did not start
DNS	9	Leon Haslam	Shell Advance Honda	Honda		Did not start
DNS	14	Anthony West	Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team	Honda		Did not start
WD	19	Olivier Jacque	Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha		Withdrew
Sources: ^[3] ^[4] ^[5]

250 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	74	Daijiro Kato	Honda	26	44:29.546	1	25
2	31	Tetsuya Harada	Aprilia	26	+0.204	2	20
3	5	Marco Melandri	Aprilia	26	+13.599	3	16
4	7	Emilio Alzamora	Honda	26	+16.813	5	13
5	10	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia	26	+18.429	4	11
6	15	Roberto Locatelli	Aprilia	26	+29.025	10	10
7	99	Jeremy McWilliams	Aprilia	26	+42.813	7	9
8	9	Sebastián Porto	Yamaha	26	+44.429	9	8
9	44	Roberto Rolfo	Aprilia	26	+45.077	12	7
10	6	Alex Debón	Aprilia	26	+45.351	11	6
11	66	Alex Hofmann	Aprilia	26	+47.253	15	5
12	12	Klaus Nöhles	Aprilia	26	+55.500	14	4
13	21	Franco Battaini	Aprilia	26	+56.474	13	3
14	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Aprilia	26	+57.653	21	2
15	18	Shahrol Yuzy	Yamaha	26	+1:04.735	18	1
16	42	David Checa	Honda	26	+1:19.767	17
17	37	Luca Boscoscuro	Aprilia	26	+1:31.159	20
18	22	José David de Gea	Yamaha	26	+1:31.496	16
19	16	David Tomás	Honda	26	+1:37.808	29
20	11	Riccardo Chiarello	Aprilia	25	+1 lap	24
21	54	Hervé Mora	Honda	25	+1 lap	26
22	45	Stuart Edwards	Honda	25	+1 lap	28
23	52	Guillaume Dietrich	Honda	25	+1 lap	31
24	56	David Fouloi	Yamaha	25	+1 lap	30
25	23	César Barros	Yamaha	25	+1 lap	25
26	53	Tom Ouvrard	Yamaha	24	+2 laps	32
Ret	20	Jerónimo Vidal	Aprilia	11	Retirement	22
Ret	8	Naoki Matsudo	Yamaha	7	Retirement	8
Ret	55	Diego Giugovaz	Yamaha	3	Retirement	23
Ret	81	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia	2	Accident	6
Ret	57	Lorenzo Lanzi	Aprilia	2	Retirement	19
Ret	64	Hugo Marchand	Honda	1	Accident	27
DNS	19	Julien Allemand	Yamaha		Did not start
DNS	98	Katja Poensgen	Aprilia		Did not start
Source: ^[6]

125 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	54	Manuel Poggiali	Gilera	24	43:33.372	2	25
2	6	Mirko Giansanti	Honda	24	+0.218	7	20
3	24	Toni Elías	Honda	24	+0.298	6	16
4	23	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	24	+0.515	8	13
5	9	Lucio Cecchinello	Aprilia	24	+0.969	3	11
6	21	Arnaud Vincent	Honda	24	+7.357	10	10
7	5	Noboru Ueda	TSR-Honda	24	+7.940	5	9
8	4	Masao Azuma	Honda	24	+8.464	17	8
9	39	Jaroslav Huleš	Honda	24	+8.751	4	7
10	29	Ángel Nieto Jr.	Honda	24	+11.523	9	6
11	41	Youichi Ui	Derbi	24	+11.962	1	5
12	17	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	24	+12.496	18	4
13	16	Simone Sanna	Aprilia	24	+12.514	13	3
14	15	Alex de Angelis	Honda	24	+20.667	14	2
15	11	Max Sabbatani	Aprilia	24	+35.012	12	1
16	28	Gábor Talmácsi	Honda	24	+36.143	16
17	26	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda	24	+37.580	15
18	18	Jakub Smrž	Honda	24	+42.565	26
19	10	Jarno Müller	Honda	24	+45.597	19
20	34	Eric Bataille	Honda	24	+59.595	22
21	27	Marco Petrini	Honda	24	+1:16.293	25
22	63	Jimmy Petit	Honda	24	+1:22.325	27
23	20	Gaspare Caffiero	Aprilia	24	+1:35.945	23
24	62	Erwan Nigon	Yamaha	24	+1:58.711	29
25	60	Xavier Hérouin	Honda	23	+1 lap	30
26	14	Philipp Hafeneger	Honda	23	+1 lap	32
27	59	Julien Enjolras	Honda	23	+1 lap	31
Ret	25	Joan Olivé	Honda	20	Retirement	21
Ret	12	Raúl Jara	Aprilia	18	Accident	24
Ret	7	Stefano Perugini	Italjet	9	Retirement	11
Ret	61	Grégory Lefort	Aprilia	6	Retirement	28
DNS	22	Pablo Nieto	Derbi	0	Did not start	20
DNS	31	Ángel Rodríguez	Aprilia		Did not start
DNS	8	Gianluigi Scalvini	Italjet		Did not start
Source: ^[7]

Championship standings after the race (500cc)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round four has concluded.^[8]

Riders' Championship standings

	Rider	Points
1	Valentino Rossi	91
2	Norifumi Abe	57
3	Max Biaggi	54
4	Loris Capirossi	45
5	Àlex Crivillé	44

Constructors' Championship standings

	Constructor	Points
1	Honda	91
2	Yamaha	78
3	Suzuki	37
4	Proton KR	19
5	Pulse	0

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Notes and References

Web site: 2001 French MotoGP. 13 June 2017. Motorsportmagazine.com.
Web site: Le Mans - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project. Malcolm. Mitchell. Progcovers.com. 27 July 2018.
Web site: 2001 French MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database. 13 June 2017. Motorsportmagazine.com. 27 July 2018.
Web site: Grand Prix Polini de France – 500cc – Race Classification. MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 20 May 2001. 21 October 2016.
Web site: FRENCH GRAND PRIX · 500cc Race Classification 2001. Motogp.com. 27 July 2018.
Web site: Grand Prix Polini de France – 250cc – Race Classification. MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 20 May 2001. 21 October 2016.
Web site: Grand Prix Polini de France – 125cc – Race Classification. MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 20 May 2001. 21 October 2016.
Web site: Standings . 2001. resources.motogp.com . PDF. 2019-08-21.