Emotional Jack Miller celebrates dream victory for Ducati at Jerez

From the lights it was Miller, from his front row start, who used the Ducati launch control to perfection leading into Turn 1 from Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and Bagnaia, with Frenchman and pole setter for the fourth GP in succession Fabio Quartararo on the Monster Energy Yamaha, fourth.

Quartararo hit the front at the end of lap four and opened a gap of nearly one and a half seconds over the Ducati man but disaster struck the race leader with 12 laps remaining as he suddenly experienced severe arm pump.

“Suddenly I no more feeling in my right arm. We were in a great position to win here,” explained a very disappointed Quartararo, who crossed the line in 13th place.

Miller retook the lead on lap 16 and controlled the remaining laps to finish nearly two seconds clear of his teammate Bagnaia, who now leads the world championship, with Morbidelli completing the rostrum.

An emotional Miller said: “I just tried to do what I could. I had done a lot of laps all weekend by myself and I knew we had reasonable pace.

“When Fabio came past he had a bit better pace. I didn’t expect him to come back to me but he did. There was a bit of a gap behind me and I could see he was struggling.

“I knew if I could get past him, keep my head down and not make any mistakes I would be ok. Those last seven or eight laps were the longest in my career,” he added.

“It’s just indescribable how I am feeling right now, it’s just a flood of emotions. I wish my parents were here to celebrate it with me.

“I just want to thank everyone for all there support and I’ll try and do it again soon.”

British star Sam Lowes got his Moto2 championship back on track with a hard fought third place on the ELF Marc VDS Kalex.

Lowes had a tough start to the 23-lap race, lying sixth at the end of the opening lap, but in the closing laps he reeled in both Red Bull KTM Ajo riders Raul Fernandez and championship leader Remy Gardner, passing the Australian four laps from the flag.

On the penultimate lap he moved into third as Fernandez ran wide at Turn 2. Lowes couldn’t close the gap to Marco Bezzecchi in second but it was good enough to close to three points behind Gardner in the championship.

At the front it was a sensational debut victory for Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio on the Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 Kalex.

Spanish sensation 16-year-old Pedro Acosta continued his amazing debut season in the Moto3 class taking his third win of 2021 and fourth consecutive podium in the Red Bull Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo teenager stretched his championship lead to 95 points as Romano Fenati and Jeremy Alcoba completed the rostrum after Denis Oncu, Jaume Masia and Darryn Binder all crashed out at the final corner.

British Petronas Honda rider John McPhee crashed out at Turn 7 on the opening lap.