Despite a red flag, Joan Mir was able to take victory in France to extend his championship lead.
Mir battled hard and eventually came out on top in an incident-filled French GP.
The race originally started with Jorge Martin on pole, who did get a good start. However, something on track saw half the field crash on the first lap, causing the red flag to come out. Riders affected included Martin and Romano Fenati.
All riders were declared fit, so the race restarted again. Martin got a blinding start, but Nicolo Bulega was caught out. The Italian slipped down to outside the top twenty on lap 1.
This was before Martin, Antonelli and Fenati also suffered crashes, putting themselves out of contention. This left it to Mir to simply ride it home, with the Spaniard putting a massive gap between him and the chasing pack.
Behind Mir, a real battle was taking place for the remaining podium places. It would eventually be left for Aron Canet to take second, and Fabio Di Giannantonio would take third.
Marco Ramirez equalled his career best finish by taking fourth, with Juanfran Guevara taking his career best finish in fifth. Enea Bastianini came home sixth, with Frenchman Jules Danilo finishing just behind him at his home race in seventh. Andrea Migno was eighth, whilst Bo Bendsneyder finished ahead of his wildcard teammate Danny Kent in ninth, whilst the 2015 Moto3 World Champion was tenth.
John McPhee put in an impressive performance to finish 12th, after starting well down the order after a terrible qualifying performance. Jakub Kornfeil was 11th.
This victory extends Joan Mir’s lead at the top of the championship standings, with the Spaniard looking in a dominant position. The riders return in two weeks time at the Mugello circuit in Italy.
