Lyon made the brighter start in this battle between two European contenders, as Jordan Veretout - making his first Ligue 1 start in almost two months - spotted Đorđe Petrović off his line with an audacious angled effort which was parried away by the Serbian.
Veretout was involved in the thick of the action in the opening exchanges, and forced another save from the Chelsea loanee following some sublime link-up play with Rayan Cherki.
The visitors came even closer to breaking the deadlock moments later through Georges Mikautadze, whose ferocious left-footed strike cannoned off the bar after the Georgian was superbly spotted by Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Paulo Fonseca’s side continued to apply the pressure, and Veretout headed over from Mikautadze’s enticing cross. In contrast, the hosts were struggling to make inroads into the clash, but Emanuel Emegha was unlucky not to get more of a connection from Dilane Bakwa’s delivery.
Lyon thought they had opened the scoring when Ernest Nuamah’ deflected angled attempt beat Petrović, but was ruled out for offside.
Le Racing came out after half time with renewed intensity and made the visitors pay for their first-half wastefulness by drawing first blood. Andrey Santos made a perfectly-timed run into the box to meet Bakwa’s corner, and powered home an unstoppable header past Lucas Perri.
Liam Rosenior’s side had the bit between their teeth, and Bakwa added a goal to go with his assist with a brilliant individual left-footed effort from the edge of the box on the hour mark.
However, this thrilling second half took another twist when Lyon halved the deficit just three minutes later with a goal which Petrović would not want to view back.
The Serbian could only push Cherki’s initial effort up into the air, and Corentin Tolisso was on hand to head home the loose ball.
Strasbourg re-established their two-goal advantage through Emegha, who deftly dispatched his angled shot past Perri from Valentín Barco’s pass, marking his 50th Ligue 1 appearance in style.
The damage was not done there, as Sam Amo-Ameyaw fired home from close range for his first Strasbourg goal since arriving from Southampton last month.
Lyon had the last word though, with Mikautadze scoring in stoppage time from the penalty spot.
This capped off a fine night’s work for Rosenior’s men, who have still only lost one league game at the Stade de la Meinau this season (W8, D4).
Le Racing look in fine fettle as they bid to secure continental football for next season, while Lyon’s five-match winning streak in all competitions comes to an end after succumbing only a fifth H2H defeat in their last 30 meetings with Strasbourg (W22, D3).
Flashscore Man of the Match: Dilane Bakwa (RC Strasbourg)