Jonathan Rea was ruled out of Sunday’s World Superbike action at Magny-Cours following his crash in Saturday’s race one.
The six-time champion underwent surgery on Saturday night to repair an abrasion to his right thumb.
Rea’s disappointing campaign on his debut Yamaha season continued with his lap-one spill in Saturday’s wet conditions.
Confirming his absence from Sunday’s action, Rea thanked “my team, my fans and all my sponsors that continue to support me in this tough period”.
With Toprak Razgatlıoglu missing the entire French round because of a collapsed lung, Italian rider Nicolo Bulega cut the championship leader’s advantage to 55 points by winning both of Sunday’s races.
Razgatlıoglu looked to have the championship under total control after securing a record 13th straight win at the previous round in Portugal but Bulega may now feel he has an outside chance of catching the Turkish rider with 248 points still available in the four remaining rounds.
In the morning superpole race, Bulega held off Britain’s Alex Lowes in an exciting duel with another Italian Danilo Petrucci completing the podium positions and the Ducati rider earned a dominant race two win as he finished ahead of Petrucci and Garrett Gerloff.
US rider Gerloff’s performance on his BMW secured his first World Superbike podium spot since 2022.
Lowes, 33, dropped from second spot to 19th on lap one in race two after an apparent gear problem but regrouped to produce a superb ride as he moved up to fourth spot by the finish.
As the injuries to the top contenders mounted, defending champion Alvaro Bautista, second behind Michael van der Mark in race one, suffered a fractured rib after crashing out on lap one in the superpole race which ruled him out of race two.
Bulega, himself, clinched his two victories despite being bothered by a shoulder injury which he sustained while crashing out on lap one on Saturday.
Lowes, who slid off in the wet on lap 11 in Saturday’s race while leading, is now only eight points behind third-placed Bautista in the championship, with the Spaniard’s chances of holding on to his title looking remote as he stands 122 points adrift of Razgatlıoglu.
