A sun-drenched St Jean D’Angely and a 41,000 spectator-packed hillside at the historic racing venue created a noisy, atmospheric and memorable 2016 Grand Prix of France and Team Suzuki World MX2’s Jeremy Seewer took his RM-Z250 to third place overall as Bas Vaessen also tasted champagne with his second podium of the EMX250 series.

Round 10 of 18 in MXGP landed on the west coast of France for the first time since 2014 and the steep hard-pack climbs, descents and off-cambers meant a tough and technical test. The Swiss celebrated his seventh rostrum finish of the year and resumed his haul of trophy collection after missing ‘the box’ in the last two meetings.

Under bright skies and occasional high clouds, Seewer made the best possible start to the first moto by earning the holeshot. He briefly led from a charging Benoit Paturel and then could do little about Jeffrey Herlings as the world championship leader barrelled past and then hunted the Frenchman to win once more. Seewer rode a lonely moto to third place. In the second race he again was almost first into the opening turn – his preparation with the team to improve his performance from the line obviously bearing fruit.