Jerez granted Pecco Bagnaia his third MotoGP podium of the season by completing a Ducati one-two in the SpanishGP this afternoon.

Bagnaia had a fight on his hands in the early stages of the 25-lap race, dropping to fifth before dispatching Aleix Espargaro and Franky Morbidelli in his climb back to third. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the next in his sights but the struggling Frenchman put up little defence and second was his by lap 18.

Teammate Jack Miller controlled the lead with two-seconds the gap to his factory partner as the race drew to its conclusion. Bagnaia looked to reel in the Australian but the promise of his first victory in the dry was too much to overcome and the Italian settled for his second consecutive second place finish in as many races. The impressive result promoting him to championship leader in the process.

“Today in the race, I felt really comfortable riding the Desmosedici GP bike, thanks to the great work done with my team over the weekend” Bagnaia said this afternoon from the Jerez paddock.

“I think that this result is better than Portimao’s one, because in Portimao we arrived with the same bike of Qatar and everything was working well. This time we had to work a lot on the bike and today my feeling with it was incredible. I was feeling great with everything, and I just struggled a bit at the start.

“I was thinking that pushing like this, with the rear tyre, would be difficult to finish the race, but I saw that Jack, Fabio, and all the other riders were pushing a lot at the start. My pace was good, I tried to recover the position and close the gap to Jack, but I had to take some risks. I lost the front with three laps to go, at turn seven, and thought it was better to be calm and finish the race.

“For sure today was the day of Jack, he did amazing, yesterday and today, so he deserved this result. To finish one-two in a track like this, for sure gives us an extra motivation to arrive in circuits where our bike works better. Tomorrow we will have another day of testing, so we have to stay focused.

“I’m happy to be the world championship leader but we have 16 races in front of us and we have to continue like this. I think that if I’m starting already just to think on the championship, I’m starting to be slower so I have to think race by race and then see what will happen.

“Today if Fabio was not struggling, he was winning the race, because his pace was incredible and he was dominating this weekend. So we had the luck but in any case, to win a championship you also have to have luck.

“This winter I worked a lot. I tried to improve myself, on the training and mentality, so I was not expecting a start like this. I was just trying to stay in the top-five and now I’m the leader of the championship so I’m very happy. We have just to continue like this, wait for other circuits where we will struggle and see if we can do something like today. I would like to be consistent like this to the finish, but now we will arrive in circuits where we are more strong, I think, and we have to continue thinking the same way - race by race, step by step, working just to adapt the bike better for every layout and let’s see. At the moment I’m not thinking that I’m a contender for the championship, I’m just thinking to enjoy and to be better every time.”