Australian rider Jack Miller got off to a great start overtaking polesitter Fabio Quartararo and then held him back to win the French MotoGP on Sunday.
The Ducati rider started in third place behind Quartararo’s Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales, but made a head start. Quartararo caught Miller a few laps later but later took a time penalty when heavy rain fell and then subsided.
Miller took his second consecutive win of the season and third overall win, beating Johann Zarco by four seconds and Quartararo by 14.5 seconds when two French riders were on the podium.
I rode to the terms. I was just counting the laps, Miller said. It’s absolutely amazing, I can’t thank the team enough.
Quartararo took the lead with 80 points, one ahead of Italian Francesco Bagnaia, who was 16th on the grid but finished in a credible fourth place.
Zarco is now third overall with 68 ahead of Miller at 64.
The race started in warm but windy conditions on the 4.2 kilometer Le Mans circuit in north-west France with a longest straight of 674 meters.
Vinales also overtook Quartararo, who dropped to third place, while Franco Morbidelli retired on lap 1 and the rain soon began to fall heavily.
Quartararo took the lead on lap 4 when Miller briefly hit the gravel while World Champion Joan Mir jumped off his Suzuki in increasingly slippery conditions.
As a result, all riders got a bike change on lap 5. Quartararo came out behind six-time world champion Marc Marquez while Miller returned to third as a driver adapted to new tires.
The first couple of laps were really seedy on the wet tires, “said Miller.
A rare mistake by Marquez resulted in his being kicked out of his Honda after misjudging a corner and Quartararo taking the lead with 19 of 27 laps remaining.
But the Frenchman was given a time penalty with 16 laps remaining, allowing Miller to pull clearly while Zarco’s extra speed and Nous in the rain pushed him to second place.
It was a bad day for Marquez, who was eliminated for the second time.
Read the latest news, breaking news and coronavirus news here