Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales wrapped up the FrenchGP in 10th place after sudden rain hit the Le Mans race, spoiling his lead from the dry early laps.

Believing a win was on the cards as the 27-lap contest was declared dry, Viñales had a good start from second place, keeping his position in the first corners, before taking charge as the race unfolded.

As the rain started to fall he was forced to ease off, running wide and dropping back to fifth, as he negotiated his way back to the pits. Rejoining the race on his ’wet bike‘ in ninth position.

Struggling to find the same feeling in the wet, the Spaniard’s progress was hampered further when a dry line began to form, overheating his soft-soft Michelin rain tyres. Eventually crossing the line in 10th, 40.577s from race leader, Jack Miller, the Monster Energy rider’s 56 points places him fifth in the overall standings, 24 behind teammate and championship leader Fabio Quartararo.

“We weren’t the luckiest today” Viñales admitted after the race.

“We made a good start and I’m happy for that. Honestly, I entered the race with positive vibes because in the dry session we went back to our full performance, and I think if the conditions were normal, it would have been a good race for me - to go on my own rhythm and to pull away. I felt fantastic with the bike. After that I just made a mistake at corner nine, and I just lost Marc, Fabio and Miller. I tried to recover places but it seems that our bike with low water on the track is not working at the maximum.

“[Flag-to-flag] is pretty bad, if it’s wet to dry is one thing but dry to wet is really, really scary - with the slick tyre on the wet. I just think Fabio had more courage when it was raining with the slicks, and he just took 20 seconds off us.

“Anyway, we know on full wet it’s good, our bike is working well, but with less rain on the track is a little bit more complicated to ride fast, but no excuses. Today I made a mistake. Anyway, I’m happy that on the other hand I improve the start and we take the positives that I led the race, which I haven’t done since Qatar race one.

“Just thinking to Mugello now, for sure, we have a lot of motivation because in this race, the start was good and I had a lot of performance under my seat.”