KTM Ajo’s Jose Antonio Rueda waited until the final corner to steal the Moto3 victory at Le Mans to extend his championship advantage.
The Championship leader opened the gap in the standings after a collision between Joel Kelso and David Munoz at the final corner presented Rueda with the victory.
The race director declared the race dry despite the mixed conditions presented by the Le Mans circuit.
Polesitter Maximo Quiles made the best start and held onto the lead going into the first corner ahead of Kelso and Angel Piqueras.
Kelso managed to stick with Quiles throughout the opening lap and made his move in the chicane to take the lead at the end of Lap 1.
As Ryusei Yamanaka dropped out of the race, Quiles was demoted to seventh by the other riders in the leading pack.
Quiles and the fastest rider on the track, Adrian Fernandez, made their way past Taiyo Furusato as the field remained tentative due to the difficult track conditions.
Kelso ran wide, which allowed the group behind to close in as Guido Pini overtook team-mate Munoz to lead the charge.
The Australian ran wide at the same corner on the next lap, but this time the Italian was close enough to move briefly into the lead, before Kelso responded.
Championship leader Rueda also progressed in the opening eight laps and overtook the IntactGP pair of Munoz and Pini to take second.
At the halfway point, the riders began to feel more comfortable on the track, as Munoz set the Moto3 race lap record at Le Mans to take half a second out of Kelso’s lead.
Piqueras made an error to lose contact with the leading group, and crashed out one corner later after attempting to make up the gap.
The leading group of four remained in their order, until Pini crashed at Turn 8 to lose his fourth place.
With three laps to go, Rueda made his move on Munoz for second, but the IntactGP rider responded into the final corner.
Rueda repeated his move on Munoz, but once again the Spaniard responded as the riders moved onto the final lap.
Kelso left the door open at the penultimate corner which invited Munoz to make a move, but the pair made contact and ran wide, gifting Rueda the lead at the final corner.
Rueda won his fourth race of the season to extend his lead at the top of the Moto3 championship.
Munoz looked to have stolen second but was awarded a drop-one position penalty which promoted Kelso ahead of the Spaniard.
Alvaro Carpe was fourth, over four seconds behind the podium finishers.
David Almansa scored a fifth place ahead of Furusato, who came home in sixth.
Polesitter Quiles settled for seventh, as he finished 7.133s off the lead.
Fernandez took the flag in eighth ahead of Luca Lunetta who beat Valentin Perrone to the line for ninth.
Dennis Foggia earned 11th, while Scott Ogden finished the Le Mans race in 12th.
There was a close battle for 13th over the line, with Jacob Roulstone prevailing ahead of Cormac Buchanan in 14th.
Italy’s Nicola Carraro completed the points finishers in 15th.
