Guintoli wins Race 1 and narrows the gap to championship lead
Aprilia 1-2 in France as both they and Kawasaki issue team orders.
Because of the weather the race distance was reduced to 19 laps and after a number of riders fell in the warm up session the opening laps were very tentative for several riders.
In the early laps it was Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) who led the way with the spray making it extremely difficult for the mid-field riders. Behind him Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) gave chase after passing Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) at the end of lap 1.
Guintoli was soon ahead of Rea and the Frenchman began to ease away, much to the delighted French crowd who were also braving the conditions.
By one third distance the Aprilia at the front was Guintoli was ahead of the chasing pack with now Marco Melandri playing shotgun to his team mate ahead of Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) who had also overhauled Sykes and Rea who began to lose touch with the leaders.
With 5 laps to go Melandri had closed to within a second and the Aprilia duo were left to fight it out for the win with the victory eventually going the way of Guintoli after it appeared that Aprilia team orders intervened.
Melandri was 2nd as Rea completed the podium with Sykes, Baz and Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) completing the top 6.
In the EVO category Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia) claimed a solid 10th position to close the gap on EVO points leader David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) who elected not to ride.
Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team), Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma Aprilia), Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team), Xavi Fores (3C Racing Team), Alessandro Andreozzi (Team Pedercini) all crashed without injury with Giugliano and Laverty re-joining to finish 7th and 19th respectively.
