Australian rider Jack Miller (Ducati) won his first victory of the season this Sunday by winning the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix, a race in which Miguel Oliveira (KTM) was fifth.
The Portuguese rider, who had started from eighth on the grid, completed the 24 laps at the Japanese Motegi track 8.185 seconds behind the winner, leaving South African Brad Binder (KTM) in second position, 3.409 seconds behind, with the Spanish Jorge Martin (Ducati) closing the podium in 4,136.
Miguel Oliveira made a good start, which allowed him to gain four positions, following Miller, who jumped from seventh to third. The Australian would take the lead shortly after, making a race away from the rest of the opponents.
The Portuguese KTM rider still managed to get four laps on the podium, having overtaken Binder on lap four. However, the South African returned the maneuver with 16 laps to go.
From then on, the 27-year-old Portuguese driver had a heated duel with Spaniard Marc Márquez (Honda), who would end up overtaking Oliveira three laps from the checkered flag.
Miguel Oliveira still saw the Italian Luca Marini (Ducati) attack his fifth place on the last lap of the race, but the Portuguese rider managed to return the overtaking and get the second best result of the season, equaling fifth place in the Portuguese GP and just behind the victory in the Indonesian GP.
The French Fábio Quartararo (Yamaha), leader of the World Championships, had a difficult test, not passing the final eighth place, after starting from the ninth position.
Even so, the current world champion gained ground on the competition, since he saw the championship runner-up, the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), fall in the last lap when he was ninth.
Spaniard Aleix Espargaró had mechanical problems on his Aprilia on the warm-up lap and pitted to change bikes, starting from pit lane. Espargaró only managed to recover to 16th position, not being able to enter one of the scoring positions.
With these results, Quartararo increased Bagnaia’s advantage from 10 to 18, with Espargaró third, at 25.
Miguel Oliveira maintains 11th place in the championship, with 106 points, just two points behind the 10th place of Spanish Alex Rins (Suzuki), who retired.
This was Miller’s tenth career win, his fourth in MotoGP. The Australian hasn’t won since the 2021 French GP.
The next race is the Thai GP on Sunday, the 17th round of the championship.
Source: TSF
