Aug 23 (Reuters) - Britain's Matt ⁠Brennan sprinted to victory in the second stage of the ⁠Vuelta a Espana on Sunday with overall race favourite Tadej ‌Pogacar holding on to the leader's red jersey.

Riding his first Grand Tour, the 21-year-old Visma-Lease a Bike rider laid down the power on the uphill drag to ​the finish in Manosque after a 214km ⁠ride from Monaco and held ⁠on comfortably.

Pau Miquel (Bahrain Victorious) was second with Pogacar third across the ⁠line.

Pogacar, ‌who won Saturday's opening time trial by 0.09 seconds from Britain's Ethan Hayter, will take a nine-second lead over Wout ⁠van Aert into Monday's third stage.

Hayter was part ​of a small ‌early breakaway and looked destined to take the overall lead ⁠when he won ​the final intermediate sprint for six bonus seconds.

But as the race funnelled into Manosque, he found himself badly positioned towards the back of the ⁠stretched-out peloton.

With around 1.5km remaining it appeared ​that Pogacar and Van Aert would fight it out for the stage victory but Pogacar stepped off the gas and it was Van Aert's ⁠unheralded team mate Brennan who seized the moment to claim his biggest career win.

"We thought there was a nice opportunity to attack in the final," Brennan, who joined the powerful Dutch Visma-Lease a ​Bike team's World Tour squad in 2025, said. "I ⁠was super happy to finish it off."

Brennan is third in the ​overall standings, 10 seconds behind Pogacar.

Monday takes ‌the riders into the French Pyrenees ​with a mountain finish in Font Romeu near the Spanish border.

(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Christian Radnedge and Toby Davis)