Grenoble beat Brive 26-25 to go third in the Top 14 but it was a game in which the visitors almost completed an impressive comeback and but for Gaetan Germain's failed conversion three minutes from time they would have taken the points.
Brive scored the first try of the night through the impressive Benito Masilevu but Grenoble went into the interval 20-10 up thanks to tries from Alipate Ratini and Rory Grice.
A penalty from Jonathan Wisniewski - he scored 16 points in all - extended the lead to 13 points after 55 minutes as Grenoble did most of the attacking without much to show for it. A converted try from Dominiko Waqaniburotu on the hour and a Germain penalty four minutes later set up a cracking finish.
Germain could have cut the lead to three points but a long-distance penalty went wide, and Wisniewski restored the six-point cushion soon after.
The final minutes were end-to-end action as both sides looked to attack and on 77 minutes replacement Jean-Baptiste PĂ©joine went over in the corner to bring Brive to within a point but Germain, struggling with cramp, could not add the conversion.