Matteo Ferrari made amends for his Race 1 crash from the lead to collect a convincing victory in the second French MotoE race of the weekend at Le Mans, despite having to serve a long-lap penalty on the way.

The inaugural MotoE World Cup title-winner has come out of the blocks fighting this weekend after claiming the first Ducati era pole position on Friday and fighting up the front of the opening race on his Felo Gresini machine.

However, after crashing out just moments after taking the lead, Race Stewards compounded his disappointment further by handing him a long-lap penalty in Race 2 as punishment for coming down on a corner where yellow flags were already flying for an earlier incident.

Undeterred, Ferrari set out on a mission from the start of Race 2, snatching the lead from Hector Garzo at the start of lap two and quickly pushing hard in an effort to build a gap prior to serving his penalty.

Lapping only four seconds shy of the leading Moto2 times from qualifying, Ferrari had pulled a lead of almost two seconds before eventually taking his detour. Rejoining in third place behind Race 1 winner Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar) and Garzo (Dynavolt IntactGP), Ferrari quickly regained his momentum to get back into the lead group.

Dispatching Garzo for second place with three laps remaining, Ferrari was back with Torres coming into the eighth and final lap.

Launching for the inside on the fast run to Turn 1, Ferrari tipped into Turn 3 back in the lead, the Italian making no mistake on the final revolution to bring it home for victory, the eighth of his MotoE career.

Torres settled for second but leaves the opening round at the head of the early 2023 MotoE World Championship standings, followed closely by Garzo, who completed the podium in Race 2.

HP Pons Los40 team-mates Mattia Casadei and Nicholas Spinelli, and Andrea Mantovani on the RNF Ducati followed in fourth, fifth and sixth to conclude their weekends on a positive note after each crashed out of strong positions in Race 1.

Race one podium winner and rookie Randy Krummenacher was seventh at the flag, with Kevin Zannoni, Alessandro Zaccone and Hikaru Okubo rounding out the top ten.

Following the high attrition rate of Race 1, a more processional second race would see just a DNF for Kevin Manfredi, plus a fall for ex-MotoGP rider Tito Rabat.

2023 French MotoE | Race 2 Results