Ducati's Jack Miller has silenced all his critics by taking an unlikely win at the Red Bull Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. The Australian pounced at an opportunity when a serious problem saw Yamaha rider, Fabio Quartararo fall from a comfortable two-second lead to outside the top ten in just a handful of laps. Joining Miller on the podium was new MotoGP World Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia, making it the first Ducati 1-2 in over three years. Petronas Yamaha rider, Franco Morbidelli managed to come in third and lock the podium.
Quartararo, who was at the top of the championship leaderboard, but came in 13th, accounting for his loss of lead. Quartararo slipped from pole position to fourth at the beginning, but composedly picked pace against his opponents and during sequential laps acquired the lead from Miller. The Frenchman lost all of his advantages with eleven laps still left in the race, after which he couldn’t recover. He returned to the Yamaha pits with visible physical pain. Miller then surpassed Quartararo and rode to his 1st MotoGP race win, whereas Bagnaia took the second spot, leaving Morbidelli behind to claim over the 2021 leaderboard. Talking about the man of the hour, J. Miller, MotoGP themselves said, “He was written off and slated from every angle after a turbulent start to 2021”.
Repsol Honda rider, Marc Marquez, managed a decent P9, as he returned from a 9-month long injury and recovery period after facing complications to a fractured right arm at the same place last year. The eight-time world champion, who somewhat escaped an injury in pre-race began the race in fourteenth and finished ninth. His sibling Alex fell on the initial lap and hurt his shoulder. Binder and Rins were early fallers, in separate incidents, rejoining at the back of the field, after which Binder fell for a second time.
Top ten:
Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team)
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) + 1.912
Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) + 2.516
Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) + 3.206
Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) + 4.256
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) + 5.164
Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 5.651
Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) + 7.161
Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) + 10.494
Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) + 11.776
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