Reigning 125cc champion Marc Marquez put the troubled start to his Moto2 career behind him with a very strong ride to victory at Le Mans.
Incidents in the first three rounds meant Marquez had not even scored prior to the French event, and in the early laps today he was at the tail of a lead train also featuring polesitter and points leader Stefan Bradl, Thomas Luthi, Yuki Takahashi, Julian Simon, Aleix Espargaro, Simone Corsi and Bradley Smith.
Marquez worked his way forward until at half-distance he was in the thick of things as Luthi stormed past Bradl to lead at the first corner, and Bradl then fell to fourth behind Takahashi and Marquez while trying to fight back.
With six laps to go, Marquez edged ahead of Luthi to lead at the first corner, but the Interwetten rider was able to hang on alongside and get back ahead into the next left-hander.
Next time around though, Marquez pulled off the move more emphatically, and then started pulling away as the trio behind battled.
His final winning margin was 1.9 seconds over Takahashi, with Bradl getting a podium position in the end, just ahead of Simon and Luthi.
Espargaro faded to a lonely sixth, while Corsi beat Dominique Aegerter, Smith and Alex de Angelis to seventh.
Andrea Iannone, who started the weekend as Bradl's closest championship rival, crashed out in a solo incident on the first lap.