Marco Melandri took a shock win in the French round of the MotoGP World Championship as Valentino Rossi failed to finish for a second time in five races this season.
Rossi looked set to put his recent troubles behind him as the Camel Yamaha rider pulled away from the Repsol Honda of Dani Pedrosa.
But Rossi retired with two thirds of the race gone to hand Melandri a surprise win on the Fortuna Honda.
Melandri admitted: "I have been lucky. If Rossi hadn't have broken down for sure I would have lost to him.
"When I saw Dani make a mistake I said 'I think I can overtake him', and when I saw Rossi pull up I said 'I think I can win'."
Melandri's fellow Italian Loris Capirossi took second on the Ducati Marlboro machine and Spaniard Pedrosa was third.
Capirossi was only able to take second from Pedrosa late in the race and was pleased to be on the podium.
He said: "I think the race was fantastic. When I saw that Rossi was out I thought that I had a podium finish in the bag, and on the last two laps I went all out to overtake Dani and managed to do so in the final moments."
Rossi had looked odds on to take the win after pulling clear of Pedrosa, but the Yamaha rider again suffered problems with his machine and the Italian now lies eighth in the series, 43 points behind leader Nicky Hayden who finished the race fifth on his Repsol Honda.
Melandri and Capirossi lie four points behind Hayden in joint second, with Pedrosa fourth on 73.
British rider James Ellison finished the race in 14th place on the Tech 3 Yamaha and lies 18th in the points table.
The 250cc race saw Japan's Yuki Takahashi win from Humangest Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, but the Italian increased his championship lead to 14 points as a result of his podium finish.
Third went to the Repsol Honda of Japan's Shuhei Aoyama who held off the Red Bull KTM of his older brother Hiroshi.
British pair Chaz Davies, on the Campetella Aprilia, and Dan Linfoot, aboard the Teng Tools Winona Aprilia, both failed to finish the first lap after crashing.
Defending 125cc champion Thomas Luthi put a disappointing start to the season behind him with a race win on the Caffe Latte Honda.
The Swiss led home the Red Bull KTM of Finland's Mika Kallio and the Valsir Seedorf Honda of Italian Fabrizio Lai.
Championship leader Alvaro Bautista, from Spain, finished fourth on the Master Aspar Aprilia to retain his place at the top of the standings.
British rider Bradley Smith was 21st on the Repsol Honda as he continued his search for a first world championship point of the season.
