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MotoGP Le Mans: Lowes slips to second in Moto2 standings as Rins wins

Gresini’s Sam Lowes is now second in the Moto2 championship standings, after slipping down one place after finishing the race in Le Mans in sixth. The win went to Paginas Amarillas’s Alex Rins, who now leads the class.

Going into the French round Lowes did have a ten point advantage over Rins in the series, but now the Spaniard has a five point overall lead. It is the second victory of the season for Rins who ended the day with a 1.8 second lead over second place finisher, Speed Up’s Simone Corsi, with the final podium spot going to Garage Plus Interwetten’s Thomas Luthi.

At first it was pole-man Luthi who got the hole-shot going in to Dunlop, from Morbidelli and Rins. It was not a great start for Lowes for slipped back to tenth on the opening lap, from a start on the third row.

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Two rotations later Lowes made his way up to eighth after overtaking Aegerter on lap three. Meanwhile up the front Rins was edging ever closer to Luthi and overtook him to lead for the first time today at Museum.

But that only latest two corners as Rins went back and Luthi slotted into the front, but Rins got his own back coming out of Dunlop with twenty laps remaining. Luthi then made a mistake and went wide, allowing for Corsi and Baldassarri to go into second and third respectively on lap eight.

With ten laps to go the battle for third started to hot up between Lorenzo Baldassarri and Luthi with the pole-setter getting the better of the Italian at Dunlop to snatch the provisional rostrum spot. Further up the front of the pack the leading pair of Rins and Corsi pulled away and had a two second advantage over third placed Luthi and the fight for the win really began.

But Baldassarri crashed while fighting with Luthi for the final podium place, paving the way for the rider to go into third unchallenged with only four laps to go in the Moto2 outing.

With Italian in the gravel it pulled Lowes up to sixth, and that is where for former World Supersport champion finished as he crossed the line. The Brit ended the race ahead of Pons, Syahrin, Salom, and rookie Oliveira who rounded off the top ten.

Jonas Folger, who has signed for Tech3 in MotoGP next season did not have the best of races as he crashed at Chapel on only his second lap, bringing an early end to his race ambitions.

Folger was not the only one to take a tumble out on the French track; Alex Marquez experienced his fourth crash in five races as he fell at turn 7. The brother of Marc was fortunately unhurt, when he crashed with twelve laps remaining.

Frenchman and back-flipper extraordinaire Johann Zarco also crashed, to the dismay of the local fans on the final corner on lap seventeen, but he did manage to get back on to cross the line in 24th

British rider, Danny Kent started the Moto2 race from the seventh row. He was able to make it inside the top twenty and had to settle for nineteenth when the chequered flag appeared.

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