Starting from the second row of the grid in wet conditions at the 4.411km French circuit, van der Mark, who was crowned 2014 World Supersport champion after the previous round at Jerez in Spain, settled into third place behind early race leader Kenan Sofuoglu and Jules Cluzel.

However, while running a relatively lonely race, the 21-year-old Dutch ace lost the front of his Honda CBR600RR on the seventh of the scheduled 17 laps. Van der Mark picked up his machine and rejoined the race in seventh place, fighting his way back to second after Sofuoglu himself crashed out of the lead.

Van der Mark’s Pata Honda team-mate, Lorenzo Zanetti, had fought his way up to fourth place from 10th on the grid and was challenging for the final podium place when the red flags came out on lap 13, signalling a premature end to the race.

It would have been Zanetti’s second podium of the season but the 27-year-old Italian retains fourth place in the championship, 17 points from third with the final race due to take place at Doha in Qatar on 2 November.

Michael van der Mark - 2nd 

First of all I want to thank my team because I gave them a lot of work to do after I crashed in the warm-up this morning. They did a great job and gave me a bike that I was able to be really fast on immediately. Unfortunately I had a small crash at the hairpin which cost me a few places but when I picked up the bike I was able to go fast again straight away so I could get by the guys in front of me. I feel sorry for Kenan because he really deserved the win today but I’m happy to finish second.