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Jack Miller has finished third in the British Grand Prix as Francesco Bagnaia wins again for Ducati.
Italian Francesco Bagnaia has won the British Grand Prix for Ducati to pick up where he left off before MotoGP's summer break.
Sunday's victory at Silverstone - ahead of Spaniard Maverick Vinales and Australia's Jack Miller - is a significant boost to Bagnaia's championship hopes.
The Ducati rider came off the five-week break 66 points behind the championship leader but capitalised on Fabio Quartararo's struggles, closing the gap to 49.
Vinales was second for Aprilia, 0.426 seconds behind after a thrilling battle over the closing laps, while Miller was third on the other factory Ducati. Australia's Remy Gardner finished 18th.
"I think this is the best win I ever had," said Bagnaia, who went into MotoGP's break with a win in the Dutch TT in Assen and has now won four times this season.
Johann Zarco, who started on pole and third in the championship standings, crashed out in the lead, ending his hopes of a first MotoGP victory.
Quartararo, Yamaha's reigning world champion, finished eighth after serving a long lap penalty, but he increased his championship lead over Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro to 22 points after 12 of 20 rounds.
Quartararo had an excellent start and immediately propelled himself to second on the grid behind Zarco before serving his penalty on the fourth lap.
He returned to the field to take fifth and crucially he came out ahead of Vinales.
Zarco's crash left Miller and Alex Rins to challenge for first - the latter having surged from 11th at the start.
Espargaro, having been a doubt for the race after a high-side in practice on Saturday, was unable to compete and fell down the field, though the dent to his Championship hopes was not as severe with teammate Vinales overtaking Quartararo on lap nine.
Three laps later, Bagnaia made his move and became the fifth different leader of the race. Miller rose to second soon after with Rins looking vulnerable heading into the closing stages.
Vinales jumped further up the standings in the final laps, taking Rins, Miller and then Bagnaia to cap off a stellar drive, but he could not retain the lead.
With agencies
