Eurosport - Sun, 18 May 16:57:00 2008

Britain's Bradley Smith claimed a career-best second-placed finish in a rain-affected 125cc French GP at Le Mans as home rider Mike Di Meglio took the chequered flag.

Di Meglio now leads Spain's Nicolas Terol - who finished third - in the championship by eight points, while Smith jumps from 14th to eighth.
Polaris World Aprilia rider Smith endured a topsy-turvy race, which had to be halted after 15 of the 24 laps because of rain. That proved to be a blessing in disguise for the young prodigy after he became embroiled in an incident at the first corner and dropped from second on the grid to 19th.

Bancaja Aspar Aprilia man Sergio Gadea retained his position at the front of the pack at the start while Esteve Rabat moved from ninth to third behind Stefan Bradl and Nicolas Terol also made a jump, to fourth from seventh.

Reigning 125cc world champion and Gadea's team-mate Gabor Talmacsi wasted little time in working his way through the field from eighth on the first two laps, emerging into second. Smith also made up ground, surging to 16th while his compatriot Scott Redding took ninth.

Jack and Jones Aprilia rider Terol went past both Talmacsi and Gadea to lead the grand prix while Redding, overtaken by Tomoyoshi Koyama, collided with Marc Marquez, forcing both into the gravel and out of the race.

Terol fell back to third on the seventh lap as Smith improved to 10th, behind Joan Olive and Spaniard Pol Espargaro, the latter of whom began to set the fastest laps in the entire field to make life difficult for him.

Bradl continued the trend for changing leaders as the rain began to spit by passing each of the front three with relative ease, only for Terol to snatch the lead soon after.

Even that did not last, with Olive coming from nowhere to take the front - and on the next lap, nine from the end, the heavens opened and the red flag came out.

The race was restarted with teams reverting to their wet tyres and only needing to complete five laps. Smith capitalised from his position at the front of the third row - the order determined by that at the end of the previous lap - to go fourth while Rabat, who had been lurking behind the frontrunners, crashed his KTM.

Olive had a problem on the grid and had to work to get the bike going, dropping off the radar. Behind new leader Talmacsi was Terol as Smith went third briefly before Espargaro snatched it back.

With three laps left Smith made a move on those ahead of him before finding himself leading the grand prix as Hungarian Talmacsi skidded out. It did not last, Di Meglio shooting through from even further back to take it from him.

Smith moved aside as the Frenchman challenged, desperate not to crash out too, and was rewarded with the top finish of his fledgling career. Olive came in eighth.

Spain's Alex Debon coasted to victory in the 250s from Italian Marco Simoncelli, who led a late attack on compatriot Mattia Pasini to snatch second.

Finn Mika Kallio finished fifth behind Japanese Yuki Takahashi and still leads the overall championship, by 16 points from Pasini with Debon and Takahashi 18 points further back.