Blaž Štremfelj
Jack Miller is the winner of the race for the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. For the Australian, this is the second victory in the MotoGP class, the first after the Dutch Grand Prix 2016 and at the same time a great victory after a difficult start to the career of the factory racer Ducati.
Miller's teammate Francesco Bagnaia, who took the lead in the World Championship, and Petronas Yamaha racer Franco Morbidelli also finished on the podium.
Miller took the lead with Ducati almost as expected at the start of the race, while Quartararo slipped to fourth place, behind Morbidelli and Bagnaio. He then overtook the latter back at the end of the second lap, and Morbidelli in the next. He drove back into the lead at the end of the fourth lap when he overtook Miller in the final corner, then slowly gained some advantage.
The Yamaha racer took the lead in the eighth lap with almost a second of advantage, and only increased the difference to Miller in the following laps. But when it already looked like he was going to celebrate his third straight win of the season, he lost almost half of his 14-second lead in the 1.5th lap, and the reason for that was problems with cramps in his arm. It was a recurring problem that left him already undergoing surgery in 2019. Because of the problems, he could only watch helplessly when Miller overtook him in the 16th round and lost another spot in the next two rounds.
Miller increased the lead to 1.5 seconds in the lead, then eased slightly and allowed Bagnai to come close to a second behind. The Australian accelerated again in the last lap and a half and brought it to the finish line with more than a second advantage and celebrated his first victory in the role of racer Ducati, his second in his career.
Bagnaia prepared a surprise for Ducati with second place, as the track in Jerez is not painted on their skin, but they still celebrated a double victory.
The factory racers of Ducati were accompanied on the podium by Morbidelli with Petronas SRT Yamaha, and Takaaki Nakagami was looking forward to fourth place after a nasty fall in Portimao despite visible difficulties. The Japanese was the highest ranked Honda racer.
Current world champion Joan Mir finished the race in a retained fifth place, while Aleix Espargaro was sixth on an Aprilia motorcycle.
Seventh was Yamaha’s second factory racer, Maverick Vinales, followed by Johann Zarco in the top ten, as well as Honda factory racers Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro.
Miguel Oliveira was the highest ranked KTM racer with 11th place, finishing the race ahead of Honda wildcard racer Stefan Bradl and Quartarar. The last points were collected by Tech3 racers Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona.
Bagnaia now leads the championship with a two-point lead over Quartararo and 16 more over Vinales, who are third.
