The final point was taken by Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat. Taking 11th was Brad Binder on the KTM, followed by Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro, while Alex Marquez on the factory Honda improved from the end of the grid at the start to finish at P13, ahead of Tech 3 KTM's Iker Lecuona. However, a string of crashes helped the rider finish under top ten, ahead of LCR's Cal Crutchlow. The Emilia Romagna GP winner started fifth but dropped to P16 at the end of the opening round as he struggled on the M1. Maverick Vinales on the factory Ducati ended at P9 after a disappointing race. His teammate Francesco Bagnaia claimed P6, ahead of Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda taking P7. Morbidelli finished at P4 with a lead of just 0.545s over Miller. This turned out to be the first double podium finish for Suzuki since Misano in 2007. Joan Mir passed Franco Morbidelli on the penultimate lap taking P2 in the race and the championship standingsĬoming in third was Alex Rins having started from P13 and made an incredible recovery to pass Morbidelli on Turn 10 of the penultime lap to take the final spot on the podium. However, the rider almost crashed twice on Turn 1 of Lap 14, which allowed Rossi to pass him for P2. Morbidelli was down to P2 but was running a close second to his teammate, aiming to regain the lead. This was followed by a pass on Morbidelli on the same corner three laps later to take the lead. At P3, Quartararo was begininning to make an attempt to pass Rossi and succeeded to do so on the first corner of Lap 6. Morbidelli was undeterred despite mounting pressure from Rossi and maintained a lead of 0.5s in the early stages. He was now chasing the protege with Quartararo moving up behind the top two riders to make it a Yamaha trio at the front once again. Meanwhile, Miller's initial burst simmered by Turn 10 with Valentino Rossi on the works Yamaha passing Miller on Turn 5 to take P2 behind Morbidelli. The opening lap saw Dovizioso being wiped out by Avintia Ducati's Johann Zarco. Johan Zarco crashed into Andrea Dovizioso on the opening lap, ending the race for both ridersįranco Morbidelli started on pole position and was followed by Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller who had a good start off the line.