Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS teammate Alex Marquez crashes when fighting for the podium.

After two days of mixed weather the conditions for the race were near perfect with a dry track and air temperature of 27 degrees.

Moto2 rookie Mir made a sensational start from position 20 on the grid to overtake ten riders on the opening lap and then surged into seventh position on lap two with some brilliant overtakes.

Joan Mir raced superbly in a tight group and despite lacking some rear grip he never gave up to score his seventh top ten finish of the season so far.

Alex Marquez confirmed his podium potential with the third fastest time in the morning warm-up and stayed patient in the opening laps. Then over the final ten laps Marquez engaged Luca Marini in a long and breathtaking battle for third on the podium.

After 25 laps of intense racing it came to a final corner showdown with Marquez running wide as he made a passing move on Marini and crashed within sight of the chequered flag.

Alex Marquez: DNF

“It was a shame, I was in the fight for the podium until the final corner. I was faster than the riders in the group but when you race like this there is always some blocking and you cannot move forward. It was long battle with Luca Marini and when I tried to pass him at the end I went wide and was ready to accept fourth when I crashed. It’s pity not to finish what was a very strong weekend but I like to race like this, pushing flat out from beginning to the end.”

Joan Mir: 8th, +12.404

“We made a good step forward with race set-up and I recovered a lot positions in the opening laps but I was still missing one or two tenths per lap. I needed more rear grip but we lost a lot of dry track time with rain in practice, without that I think we could have been better prepared for the race. I gave everything today and it’s a shame to be eighth, I was expecting more.”