Celestino Vietti battled to his second Moto3 victory of 2020 in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans as he held off Tony Arbolino on the final tour.
Vietti ran up front across the entirety of the 22 lap encounter after taking the start from tenth on the grid, staying out of trouble across the bulk of the race distance but making several decisive moves as the laps ticked down.
He had moved himself firmly into the top five heading into the final few tours, and made the move for the lead on Jaume Masia on the penultimate circulation.
The VR46 pilot continued to push over the final lap or so in order to prevent a challenge from the pursuing Arbolino, title contender Albert Arenas and Masia.
The Italian sternly protected his leadership though and didn’t allow his charging rivals behind an opportunity to pass, Vietti taking the chequered flag by just 0.142 ahead of Snipers man Arbolino.
Arenas recovered well from a disastrous Catalan GP-in which he retired after being taken out by John McPhee- to re-establish himself in the points lead with the final spot on the rostrum, helped in part due to another tough day for Ai Ogura.
The Honda Team Asia racer struggled for speed once again at Le Mans much like he did last time out in the Catalan GP after qualifying only 18th.
He then made a poor start and dropped even further down the field to 24th, although a spate of crashes twinned with a solid recovery ride in the closing stages allowed him to move himself back to ninth by the time he crossed the line to limit the points loss to Arenas.
Masia meanwhile came home fourth after being unable to recover from being shuffled back on the second-to-last lap, with Vietti’s team-mate Andrea Migno completing the top five.
Ayumu Sasaki secured his best result of the season for his Tech 3 team in sixth ahead of Raul Fernandez, while Gabriel Rodrigo was eighth.
Carlos Tatay led the second pack of riders for most of the contest-rising to ninth entering the closing stages- but fell behind Ogura at the death, though tenth still secured the rookies best ever Moto3 result.
One of the several late high-profile exits belonged to Petronas SRT’s McPhee, who suffered his second consecutive crash-though this time he was cleared of any blame.
The Scot was beginning to make his way through the leading group as the encounter raced towards its climax, but was taken down when Jeremy Alcoba high-sided on the exit of Turn 10.
The Gresini rider collected an innocent McPhee as he slid to the outside, fast-tracking the pair into the gravel and early retirement.
Defending race winner Darryn Binder also made a late exit, the South African’s CIP Green Power KTM giving up the ghost mid-way through the Turn 9.
MAX Racing meanwhile had a race to forget as Alonso Lopez missed his braking point into the penultimate bend and collected team-mate Romano Fenati.
The pair subsequently went down both retired, just a quarter of the way through the French event.
Arenas’ third position moves him back into the lead of the points, though by just six points over Ogura.
Vietti’s win moves him to within 16 of Arenas, while Arbolino’s recent run of strong finishes means he lies fourth overall and just 20 points from the top with just five races remaining.
