18-year-old Celestino Vietti won the French Moto3 Grand Prix at Le Mans on Sunday.

The KTM rider clocked 37’37.384 to register the second Moto3 win of his career,  he was the only rider to start with hard Dunlop tyres. Vietti held on to Tony Arbolino and new championship leader Albert Arenas on the last lap to win the race.

Petronas Sprinta’s John McPhee who started in the front row after a fine weekend fell victim to a crash in the 18th lap involving Jeremy Alcoba. The Scotsman had already endured a sluggish start and was running at the 10th position.

Albert Arenas, with arguably the best launch, took the lead on the run-up to the Dunlop chicane, followed by Jaime Masia.

It was the penultimate lap that changed the mood of the race when Vietti charged a move in Arenas who was following Arbolino.

“It was a strange race, I didn’t expect this result,” said the KTM rider, now third in the championship on 119 points, 16 shy of Arenas with five races left.

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“It was difficult to overtake – I’m very happy, we handled the race well,” added Vietti whose debut win in the category came at Spielberg in the Styrian Grand Prix in August.

Splitting Arenas and Vietti in the Moto3 title race is Honda’s Japanese rider Ai Ogura, who led the championship before this 10th leg of the coronavirus-disrupted season, but after his ninth place finish now trails Arenas by six points.