Le Mans Moto2: Rins holds off Corsi for win

And with erstwhile points leader Sam Lowes having finished just sixth, a victory for Rins promoted him to the top of the standings after five races.

Off the line, it was a stellar getaway for poleman Luthi and a rather sluggish one for Rins, the Spaniard dropping behind Franco Morbidelli, Takaaki Nakagami and Corsi.

Rins quickly cleared Corsi, however, before the two of them passed Nakagami and then Morbidelli, setting out after Luthi.

From that point on, Luthi and Rins appeared set to pull away from the field - but as they began to duel on lap five, with Rins taking the lead at La Musee before the Swiss rider snatched it back, their breakaway came to naught.

On lap seven, Rins cleared Luthi again, and before the poleman could respond, he was divebombed into Turn 1 by Corsi and then slipped back to fourth behind Lorenzo Baldassarri.

It took Luthi until well past halfway to clear Baldassarri, at which point the Swiss rider has slipped to a second and a half down on two leaders - whereas the Italian would drop his bike on the ground with five laps to go.

Out front, Corsi kept up with Rins and looked as if he would be able to mount a last-gasp challenge for victory - but the Italian instead slipped back in the final laps, finishing almost two seconds adrift.

Luthi completed the podium, with Morbidelli and Nakagami making up the top five ahead of Lowes.

It was seventh for Axel Pons - a repeat of his best-ever finish in Moto2 - with Hafizh Syahrin taking eighth ahead of of Luis Salom and last year's Moto3 runner-up Miguel Oliveira.

Crashing along with Baldassarri were Alex Marquez, Julian Simon, MotoGP-bound Jonas Folger and reigning champion Johann Zarco.

Race results

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Alex Rins	Kalex	42:27.312
2	Simone Corsi	Speed Up	+1.802
3	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	+4.608
4	Franco Morbidelli	Kalex	+9.148
5	Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	+9.828
6	Sam Lowes	Kalex	+10.626
7	Axel Pons	Kalex	+25.477
8	Hafizh Syahrin	Kalex	+25.961
9	Miguel Oliveira	Kalex	+29.481
10	Luis Salom	Kalex	+29.368
11	Xavier Simeon	Speed Up	+29.573
12	Luca Marini	Kalex	+29.773
13	Dominique Aegerter	Kalex	+30.183
14	Marcel Schrötter	Kalex	+30.244
15	Xavi Vierge	Tech 3	+36.538
16	Mattia Pasini	Kalex	+38.602
17	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	+44.911
18	Robin Mulhauser	Kalex	+45.297
19	Danny Kent	Kalex	+45.755
20	Isaac Viñales	Tech 3	+50.278
21	Ratthapark Wilairot	Kalex	+55.773
22	Alessandro Tonucci	Kalex	+1:01.790
23	Jesko Raffin	Kalex	+1:02.201
24	Johann Zarco	Kalex	+1:02.484
25	Danny Eslick	Suter	+1:39.502
R	Alex Marquez	Kalex
R	Julian Simon	Speed Up
R	Jonas Folger	Kalex
DNS	Sandro Cortese	Kalex