Ben was smashing the competition from the start, going into the finals in first place after qualifying day. With the top 16 battling it out to make the 4-strong Super Final

On an awe-inspiring stage for racing and in front of 42,000 noisy fans Team CP377 Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel was superlative to win the first moto by a massive one and a half minutes despite starting from 20th in the gate.

Valentino Rossi, Michael Schumacher and Stephane Peterhansel together sharing tarmac here in Le Mans. Fair enough, it was left to Valentino to wrestle his machinery on the track but the titles on show were pretty spectacular.