Moto3 Championship leader Maximo Quiles dominated in the wet weather conditions to clinch race victory in Le Mans.
Quiles started on the front row of the grid and held his inside line on the run to the first corner to lead the race from start to finish, eventually crossing the line by 1.888s.
The race was reduced to 13 laps to allow the riders a chance to have 10 minutes in order to assess the conditions on their sighting laps.
Polesitter Adrian Fernandez wheelied off the line and was swallowed up on the run down to the first corner, which allowed Quiles to take the lead on the inside of the corner.
Brian Uriarte crashed in the middle of the pack of the run down to Turn 2, while David Munoz also went down in the chicane and Cormac Buchanan on the exit of Turn 6 as the treacherous conditions prevailed in the first lap.
Fernandez recovered from his difficult start, which saw him down to sixth, but was aided by crashers around and a strong overtake on Joel Kelso and Marco Morelli to move back into second place.
Quiles continued to build his lead as the others behind faltered, with team-mate Morelli crashing out of third but managing to rejoin in 17th behind fellow crasher Valentin Perrone.
Alvaro Carpe was another rider to crash out of a strong position, with the Spaniard falling whilst running in sixth place and saw him record his first DNF of the season.
The crashers ahead allowed Matteo Bertelle to move into third, and although the Italian was given a long lap penalty for taking a shortcut at Turn 10, he rejoined in position and set the fastest lap of the race.
However, no one was able to touch Quiles at the front, as he led every lap on his way to the race victory. The 18-year-old eventually crossed the line to seal his victory and extend his lead in the standings to 56 points.
Fernandez moved up to second in the championship with his second place, recovering from his difficult start to complete the race almost two seconds behind Quiles.
Bertelle completed the podium in third despite serving a long lap penalty, finishing with a three second gap to the group behind.
Rookie Veda Pratama impressed in fourth, while Joel Esteban progressed from 20th on the grid to fifth over the line.
Guido Pini took a comfortable sixth, as Adrian Cruces stole seventh from David Almansa on the final lap despite serving a long lap penalty.
Almansa held onto eighth after outdragging Eddie O’Shea to the line, with Hakim Danish rounding out the top 10.
Despite a crash on Lap 2, Perrone earned 11th place ahead of Ryusei Yamanaka in 12th and fellow crasher Morelli in 13th.
Leo Rammerstorfer stayed out of trouble in 14th, as Brian Uriarte crashed twice in the race but was still able to earn the final point in 15th.
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