Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller has admitted he used up too much rear tyre in the early battle with eventual Moto GP Le Mans winner Marc Marquez but added it felt good to be in a position to actually see the reigning champion take the chequered flag.

After qualifying on the front row in France, Miller got into a battle with the Repsol Honda man but then paid for it as the laps counted down and faded away to fourth behind the two works Ducatis.

“I maybe got a little bit carried away at the start and used a little bit too much of my edge of the tyre. I tried to get in front of Marc because I felt I had the speed but I didn’t know if I was going to keep the speed for the whole race,” said Miller.

“So I tried to get in front of Marc and slow the pace down a little bit but he was able to get back past me after about two laps and once he got back past he was just able to chip away like a tenth per lap, bang, bang, bang, bang, till it got to about a second and then he was pretty strong.

It was nice to get the pass on him and to show that we can fight but I just need to understand a little bit more how to do the laptime without using the edge of the tyre like I did.”

It was a strong performance from the young Australian who was able to keep Marquez within sight for most of the French race - and was pleased to be able to see the little Spaniard when he crossed the line for victory.

“I saw Marc going over the line so that’s good, I’ll take that. That’s a positive but you know, just another learning day for us.

“Once I got past Danilo, which was quite hard at the start you know, he was having a look at Marc but didn’t really seem to have the pace that we had at the start, and yeah once I got past him I just reeled in Marc, then got past Marc, and I probably spent too much of the edge trying to do so.

“And then yeah once I got past and he saw the pace was dropping, because I was setting the pace, he swiftly moved back past in front of me and we dropped our pace back down a little bit but I just couldn’t run his pace.

“He was on good form. He was chipping away at it, I was watching my pit board go four tenths, five tenths, six tenths, just a tenth a lap and it was enough for him.”