LE MANS: Spaniard Maverick Vinales won a thrilling French Grand Prix and took the lead in the MotoGP championship on Sunday after Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi blew his chance of victory with a last lap crash.

Vinales and Rossi were battling for the win throughout but stepped up their breathless battle with three laps to go when Rossi grabbed the lead, sending the 100,000 crowd under the Le Mans sunshine wild.

It looked all over, but Rossi made an uncharacteristic braking error to allow Vinales back into the lead on the last lap, then the 38-year-old lost control and skidded out the race when pushing hard to get his nose back in front in the closing moments.

“Incredible, I gave my best in the last laps,” Vinales said. “Le Mans is always a very good track for me. I saw Valentino make a mistake and I made a push after two disastrous races.”

French rider Johann Zarco, a rookie in the top category this season, took his first MotoGP podium in front of his home crowd with second place on the non-works Tech3 Yamaha after leading early on.

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, whose triple world champion team-mate Marc Marquez crashed on lap 18, inherited third place for Honda after Rossi slid out as he battled Vinales for the lead he had lost moments earlier.

After five rounds of the championship, Vinales has 85 points with Pedrosa moving up to second on 68. Italian Rossi has 62 and Marquez 58.

The next race is the Italian MotoGP in Mugello in two weeks’ time.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017