Before a huge crowd of home fans Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Tito Rabat continued his string of points scoring finishes with a determined 15th place in Barcelona today.

The result comes on the back of two 11th places at the previous races in Mugello and Le Mans and Rabat has now scored points in every race he has finished this season.

Starting from 19th on the grid Rabat struggled for overtaking opportunities in traffic early in the race but made the most of his race pace to pick up the final championship point when he passed Andrea Iannone with two laps to go.

For Jack Miller the chance of a top ten finish ended on lap 14 when the Australian rider crashed out of tenth place at turn five.

Miller was playing a waiting game to save tyre life for later in the race after making his trademark fast start to slot into ninth on the opening lap.

With set-up changes that generated improved front-end feel Miller had been fourth fastest in the Sunday morning warm-up and had carried that pace into the race before his early exit.

The step forward comes at the right time of the season with the next outing being the Dutch TT at Assen, where Miller will defend his superb victory in the race last year.

Tito Rabat: 15th
“I would have liked a better result at my home race and I tried 100% but it was not possible. I was feeling more comfortable towards the end of the race and the good thing is today I finished 40 seconds to the winner when last year I was one minute behind, so better by 20 seconds. Each race I have finished this season I’ve been in the points but my problem is having the pace to overtake other riders early in the race.”

Jack Miller: DNF
“I had a good pace in the warm-up after we found some set-up improvements and I carried that pace into the race and settled into my rhythm running low 1’47s. I was catching the group of Rossi, Lorenzo and Zarco and felt really comfortable and braked at the same point at the downhill left but got caught out by the camber and crashed. I’m disappointed because I had worked hard to get into a good position and felt comfortable with 11 laps to go when I went out. The positive is that I got some front feeling back today so I’m looking forward to the next race in Assen.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“Jack had the pace to challenge for the top ten today and we saw that in morning warm-up when he was fourth fastest. It was a shame he did not finish the race when his times were faster than the riders ahead of him. It was always going to be difficult for Tito to score points today but he hung in there and was coming on strong towards the end, we just need work on his pace early in the race.”