Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Tito Rabat backed-up his superb qualifying pace to finish 11th in today’s Italian Grand Prix.

And with teammate Jack Miller in 15th position the sixth round of the MotoGP World Championship delivered a double points finish.

Starting from a career best tenth on the grid Rabat lost ground early on the Mugello Circuit with its sweeping curves and fast straight. But a mid-race surge saw the Spaniard tagging behind fellow Honda RC213V riders Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa.

With five laps to go Rabat was losing rear tyre grip and decided to conserve energy to make sure of a points finish.

The Italian GP weekend was a frustrating one for Miller who lacked front-end confidence and set-up time having missed the earlier Barcelona test with a hand injury suffered in the French GP.

It was crucial for Miller to get through this race without further fitness issues and he rode accordingly to secure the final world championship point.

Miller is now 12th in the championship standings on 30 points with Rabat in 16th position with 18 points.

Tito Rabat: 11th
“I am very happy with this result because this is the closest I have finished to the front guys in MotoGP. After the start I was able to stay with Cal Crutchlow for many laps and I was pushing 100%. Then towards the end Dani Pedrosa was just ahead but I was losing some rear grip and was getting very tired so I decided to make sure I finished the race.”

Jack Miller: 15th
“Scoring a point today is bonus considering from the start of the weekend I just didn’t feel on the pace with a lack of front grip and confidence. But it was a solid result with no crashes and I did the best I could in the race. Now I’m looking forward to doing the Barcelona race next weekend and being fit for the second of the back-to-back races.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“At the beginning of the race Tito lost some time but he was much faster in the middle section and he showed all the weekend that he had the potential to do this result. Tito was the second Honda rider to finish the race. This was a difficult weekend for Jack and we were not able to give him a bike he was comfortable with so I hope we can go to Barcelona and find the pace Jack showed at the beginning of the season. We have two riders in the points, so this is a positive.”