1998 French motorcycle Grand Prix

The 1998 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fifth round of the 1998 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 31 May 1998 at Le Castellet.

Mick Doohan, Àlex Crivillé and Carlos Checa, celebrating on the podium after finishing second, first and third in the 500cc race.

  1998 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 5 of 14 races in the 1998 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	31 May 1998
Official name	Grand Prix de France Moto[1][2][3]
Location	Circuit Paul Ricard
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.800 km (2.361 mi)
500cc
Pole position Rider Mick Doohan Time 1:21.188 Fastest lap Rider Àlex Crivillé Time 1:21.736 on lap 27 Podium First Àlex Crivillé Second Mick Doohan Third Carlos Checa
250cc
Pole position Rider Tetsuya Harada Time 1:23.417 Fastest lap Rider Tetsuya Harada Time 1:23.688 on lap 19 Podium First Tetsuya Harada Second Valentino Rossi Third Loris Capirossi
125cc
Pole position Rider Noboru Ueda Time 1:29.002 Fastest lap Rider Masao Azuma Time 1:29.519 on lap 12 Podium First Kazuto Sakata Second Marco Melandri Third Masao Azuma

500 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Àlex Crivillé	Repsol Honda	Honda	31	42:41.128	3	25
2	1	Mick Doohan	Repsol Honda	Honda	31	+0.283	1	20
3	8	Carlos Checa	Movistar Honda Pons	Honda	31	+0.498	2	16
4	19	John Kocinski	Movistar Honda Pons	Honda	31	+6.888	7	13
5	6	Max Biaggi	Marlboro Team Kanemoto	Honda	31	+10.447	4	11
6	20	Luca Cadalora	Yamaha Team Rainey	Yamaha	31	+16.305	6	10
7	5	Norick Abe	Yamaha Team Rainey	Yamaha	31	+16.791	9	9
8	3	Nobuatsu Aoki	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	31	+17.041	8	8
9	11	Simon Crafar	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha	31	+20.553	12	7
10	15	Sete Gibernau	Repsol Honda	Honda	31	+23.754	11	6
11	55	Régis Laconi	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha	31	+37.553	15	5
12	28	Ralf Waldmann	Marlboro Team Roberts	Modenas KR3	31	+43.819	13	4
13	10	Kenny Roberts, Jr.	Team Roberts	Modenas KR3	31	+48.079	10	3
14	14	Juan Borja	Shell Advance Racing	Honda	31	+51.451	17	2
15	17	Jurgen van den Goorbergh	Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team	Honda	31	+1:03.343	16	1
16	22	Sébastien Gimbert	Tecmas Honda Elf	Honda	31	+1:14.072	18
17	18	Garry McCoy	Shell Advance Racing	Honda	31	+1:23.072	19
18	23	Matt Wait	FCC TSR	Honda	30	+1 lap	20
19	57	Fabio Carpani	Team Polini Inoxmacel	Honda	30	+1 lap	22
Ret	9	Alex Barros	Honda Gresini	Honda	22	Retirement	5
Ret	88	Scott Smart	Team Millar Honda Britain	Honda	12	Retirement	21
Ret	77	Eskil Suter	MuZ Roc RennSport	MuZ	1	Accident	14
DNS	25	Yukio Kagayama	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki		Did not start
Sources: [4][5][6]

250 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	31	Tetsuya Harada	Aprilia	29	40:59.018	1	25
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Aprilia	29	+0.631	3	20
3	65	Loris Capirossi	Aprilia	29	+14.406	2	16
4	19	Olivier Jacque	Honda	29	+27.017	5	13
5	4	Stefano Perugini	Honda	29	+28.024	11	11
6	6	Haruchika Aoki	Honda	29	+28.045	4	10
7	9	Jeremy McWilliams	TSR-Honda	29	+36.228	9	9
8	8	Luis d'Antin	Yamaha	29	+49.849	12	8
9	7	Takeshi Tsujimura	Yamaha	29	+50.216	14	7
10	24	Jason Vincent	TSR-Honda	29	+51.672	13	6
11	21	Franco Battaini	Yamaha	29	+53.376	19	5
12	11	Jürgen Fuchs	Aprilia	29	+1:01.689	7	4
13	17	José Luis Cardoso	Yamaha	29	+1:14.169	10	3
14	44	Roberto Rolfo	TSR-Honda	29	+1:18.169	17	2
15	68	Julien Allemand	Honda	28	+1 lap	24	1
16	14	Davide Bulega	ERP Honda	28	+1 lap	23
17	69	Vincent Philippe	Honda	28	+1 lap	26
18	70	Franck Poulle	Honda	28	+1 lap	28
Ret	71	Hervé Mora	Aprilia	24	Retirement	27
Ret	41	Federico Gartner	Aprilia	21	Retirement	25
Ret	12	Noriyasu Numata	Suzuki	17	Accident	18
Ret	20	William Costes	Honda	13	Accident	16
Ret	37	Luca Boscoscuro	TSR-Honda	11	Retirement	15
Ret	5	Tohru Ukawa	Honda	8	Retirement	6
Ret	27	Sebastián Porto	Aprilia	5	Retirement	8
Ret	18	Osamu Miyazaki	Yamaha	4	Accident	21
Ret	25	Yasumasa Hatakeyama	ERP Honda	4	Accident	20
Ret	16	Johan Stigefelt	Suzuki	1	Retirement	22
DNS	67	Matthieu Lagrive	Honda		Did not start
Source: [7]

125 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Kazuto Sakata	Aprilia	27	40:57.583	2	25
2	13	Marco Melandri	Honda	27	+0.292	12	20
3	20	Masao Azuma	Honda	27	+0.393	9	16
4	15	Roberto Locatelli	Honda	27	+3.314	11	13
5	10	Lucio Cecchinello	Honda	27	+4.057	4	11
6	9	Frédéric Petit	Honda	27	+4.824	5	10
7	22	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	27	+10.041	8	9
8	5	Masaki Tokudome	Aprilia	27	+14.660	18	8
9	26	Ivan Goi	Aprilia	27	+28.373	13	7
10	62	Yoshiaki Katoh	Yamaha	27	+32.660	23	6
11	41	Youichi Ui	Yamaha	27	+35.533	7	5
12	21	Arnaud Vincent	Aprilia	27	+35.617	10	4
13	59	Jerónimo Vidal	Aprilia	27	+48.609	21	3
14	17	Enrique Maturana	Yamaha	27	+51.162	20	2
15	18	Paolo Tessari	Aprilia	27	+57.049	14	1
16	65	Andrea Iommi	Honda	27	+1:24.700	24
17	67	Randy de Puniet	Honda	27	+1:29.236	27
18	69	Jimmy Petit	Honda	26	+1 lap	28
Ret	7	Emilio Alzamora	Aprilia	18	Retirement	17
Ret	3	Tomomi Manako	Honda	17	Retirement	3
Ret	29	Ángel Nieto, Jr.	Aprilia	17	Retirement	19
Ret	32	Mirko Giansanti	Honda	13	Accident	6
Ret	68	Nicolas Dussauge	Honda	13	Retirement	22
Ret	16	Christian Manna	Yamaha	11	Retirement	25
Ret	2	Noboru Ueda	Honda	6	Accident	1
Ret	8	Gianluigi Scalvini	Honda	6	Accident	16
Ret	39	Jaroslav Huleš	Honda	5	Retirement	26
Ret	25	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	2	Accident	15
Source: [8]

Championship standings after the race (500cc)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round five has concluded.^[9]

Riders' Championship standings Pos. Rider Points 1 Àlex Crivillé 92 2 Mick Doohan 90 3 Max Biaggi 88 4 Carlos Checa 70 5 John Kocinski 43

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Honda 125 2 Yamaha 55 3 Suzuki 44 4 Modenas KR3 28 5 MuZ 4

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