Miller takes first dry MotoGP win at Jerez

Jack Miller has taken his first ever dry weather MotoGP race win, in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

The victory, also his first for the factory Ducati Lenovo Team, came after Fabio Quartararo faded dramatically to 13th at the chequered flag when he had seemed almost certain to win.

Even better for Ducati, it was Miller’s team-mate Francesco Bagnaia who finished second and moved into the championship lead, with Petronas SRT Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli rounding out the podium.

Takaaki Nakagami took fourth on the Idemitsu LCR Honda entry, Suzuki Ecstar’s Joan Mir ended up fifth, and Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was ninth.

Back at the start, Miller jumped into the early lead from third on the grid, ahead of Morbidelli, Bagnaia, Quartararo, and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Gresini).

Quartararo had pace on Bagnaia but needed two attempts to make a pass stick, the latter being a dive down the inside at Curva Lorenzo (Turn 13) on Lap 2.

The Frenchman pulled off the same move on Morbidelli a lap later, as Aleix Espargaro went underneath Bagnaia just behind them.

Quartararo wasted little time in latching on to the rear of the #43 Ducati, and made it three last-corner overtakes in as many laps.

By the end of Lap 5, he was 0.5s up on Miller, while the top five collectively was a clear breakaway relative to the rest of the field.

It was a full second on Lap 8, before Bagnaia reclaimed fourth spot from Aleix Espargaro on Lap 9 as they ran towards Dry Sack (Turn 6).

Quartararo was 1.5s to the good after 13 laps, but it was soon after that the tide started to turn.

As Bagnaia passed Morbidelli at the start of Lap 15, Miller had wiped out #20’s once seemingly rock solid lead, before picking off the Yamaha at Turn 1 on Lap 16.

The Queenslander gapped Quartararo to the tune of 0.6s by the end of that tour, then Bagnaia went down the inside of the pre-race championship leader on Lap 18 at Turn 4.

By that time, Miller was more than two seconds up the road and although Bagnaia was chipping away at that advantage at one point, there would be no serious threat to the man who won a wet Dutch TT in 2016.

They were separated by 1.912s when the chequered flag flew after 25 laps, with Morbidelli third after also passing Quartararo on Lap 18.

As such, Miller moves up to sixth in the championship, 27 points behind Bagnaia and 25 behind Quartararo.

Fourth on the day went to Nakagami thanks to a very brave move around the outside of Aleix Espargaro at Curva Sito Pons (Turn 5) on Lap 19, although that was only for fifth at the time and was enabled in part by the #41 Aprilia being bottled up behind Quartararo.

Mir passed Aleix Espargaro on Lap 19 at Dry Sack before doing the inevitable to Quartararo, and therefore took fifth.

Behind Aleix Espargaro in sixth were Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati).

Marc Marquez finished ninth, one spot up on team-mate Pol Espargaro, having run around the cusp of the top 10 all afternoon.

Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) managed to finish, but got no points for that given he did so in 20th, after crashing out of seventh position on Lap 3.

There were three DNFs, all for crashes, those riders being Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Enea Bastianini (Avintia Ducati), and Alex Marquez (Castrol LCR Honda).

Round 5 is the French Grand Prix at Le Mans on May 14-16.

Race results: Spanish MotoGP

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	41:05.602
2	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+1.912
3	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	+2.516
4	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+3.206
5	36	Joan MIR	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+4.256
6	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	+5.164
7	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+5.651
8	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	+7.161
9	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+10.494
10	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+11.776
11	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+14.766
12	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	Honda HRC	Honda	+17.243
13	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+18.907
14	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+20.095
15	27	Iker LECUONA	ESP	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+20.277
16	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	SKY VR46 Avintia	Ducati	+20.922
17	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	+22.731
18	53	Tito RABAT	ESP	Pramac Racing	Ducati	+30.314
19	32	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	+37.912
20	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+38.234
DNF	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	14 Laps
DNF	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Avintia Esponsorama	Ducati	14 Laps
DNF	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	0 Lap

Race winner: 25 laps

Championship points

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	66
2	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	64
3	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	50
4	Joan MIR	ESP	49
5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	48
6	Jack MILLER	AUS	39
7	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	35
8	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	33
9	Alex RINS	ESP	23
10	Brad BINDER	RSA	21
11	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	19
12	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	18
13	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	17
14	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	17
15	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	16
16	Stefan BRADL	GER	11
17	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	9
18	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	8
19	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	5
20	Luca MARINI	ITA	4
21	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	4
22	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	2
23	Iker LECUONA	ESP	2
24	Tito RABAT	ESP