Moto3: Mir dominates to win after red flag chaos
Joan Mir kept the Honda wins coming as he powered away to a massive 4.254s victory at the Moto3 Grand Prix in Le Mans, keeping his head following the red flag chaos of the original start.
The Leopard rider was seen in the medical centre and declared fit to race and didn't waste his second chance and powered through from eighth on the grid to battle Romano Fenati at the front.
The pair were pulling clear when the Marinelli Rivacold Snipers rider, then leading, exited into the gravel in a classic Museum corner fall with nine laps remaining.
With his championship rivals all falling the Spaniards third win now means he also holds a massive advantage the overall standings, leading the championship by 34 points from Fenati, who remains second despite his tumble.
The next pack of riders were involved in a huge battle for second, keeping the entertainment up to the very last corners with Aron Canet best placed to take advantage of Darryn Binder's last lap fall, placing his Estrella Galicia bike into second, holding off all late advances from Gresini's Fabio Di Giannantonio, who completes the rostrum.
The podium remains an all-Honda affair, with both Canet and Di Giannantonio both making notable movements through the pack to prevent a KTM appearance again, having started 12th and 15th on the grid respectively.
Platinum Bay Real estate rider Marcos Ramirez looked on track for his first podium before being raced out of contention on the last lap, but his performance for fourth still equalled his best finish and the Spaniard was the top KTM finisher.
Juanfran Guevara crossed the line in fifth for RBA, Enea Bastianini took sixth on the second Estrella Galicia entry, while home hero Jules Danilo gave a strong performance to secure seventh for Marinelli Rivacold Snipers.
Andrea Migno was the top Sky Racing VR46 runner in eighth, ahead of Bo Bendsneyder who was the highest placing Red Bull KTM Ajo runner, just holding off a competitive run by his wild-card team-mate Danny Kent who completes the top ten.
Jakub Kornfeil recovered from his crash in the first start to secure eleventh on the Peugeot Saxoprint machine, while John McPhee (British Talent Team) made up ground from 25th on the grid to take twelfth at the chequered flag.
The remaining points went to top rookie Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (Honda Team Asia)in 13th, Lorenzo Dalla Porta ( Aspar Mahindra) who was also involved in the opening incident in 14th and CIP's Marco Bezzecchi in 15th.
Niccolo Antonelli was the first to crash out on the restart after battling up to third. The Italian later fell again at turn three.
Jorge Martin fell from second on the restart with just three laps run, Albert Arenas was running in the top ten when he also fell on the same lap.
The original start saw a four rider pile up on the first lap - Adam Norrodin, Dalla Porta, Kornfeil and Tatsuki Suzuki all fell with just Norrodin not re-joining. Lap two saw the then lead duo of Jorge Martin and Romano Fenati hit a black smear of liquid on the track and crash out, swiftly followed by half the field.
It was later confirmed that it was Norrodin's bike which spilt oil on the track. He was the only rider not to rejoin after all riders were declared fit to race and the mechanics did an amazing job to repair the bikes in time for the fast start.
Gabriel Rodrigo missed the race due to the injury he picked up earlier in the race weekend.
