Starting from pit lane, just a few days a🍸fter surgery for a broken scaphoid bone in his right wrist, Johann Zarco surely never believed he'd be fighting with world championship leader Fabio Quartararo at the༒ end of the Styrian MotoGP.

"It has been a great Sunday. Better than I could expect. I wa♔nted some rain, we didn't get it but even in the dry finally the race was good," Zarco said.

Electing no﷽t to take any painkillers in order to maintain full feeling in his wrist, Zarco faced a massive physical challenge just to complete the 28 laps.

The Frenchman also felt his chances of reaching the points were not helped by what he felt was a s🅷low release from the end of pit lane.

"I needed five or six laps to catch the second last rider because it seemed like the marshal that had to give me the green flag fell asleep! It🥀 was really long!" Zarco smiled.

The Avintia Ducati rider – who would have started on the front row without the penalty for the previous weekend's incident with Franco Morbidelli - took six laps to pass team-mate Tito Rabat, reaching 🐼18th place when the race was stopped due tꦅo Maverick Vinales' accident.

"In the first race after 15 laps [the wrist] was a little bit critical in that moment. So I've been lucky to have two starts today," Zarco said. "It was great✱ to have a little break to recover the wrist, because then with the adrenaline on the second start I almost forgot the pain."

Zarco picked off Cal Crutchlow, Bradley Smith, Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez during the opening four laps, then spent the rest o🦩f the race 𒐪on the rear wheel of Quartararo.

"I have some really good skills and, with my riding style, some advantage in many places, but to fight with the others at the moment is not helping me," Zarco🐼 said. "So I said to the team, when we are able to manage this weak point then I think I can be very strong✅.

"But the fight was good and at the end wi🐈th Fabio I was stronger with the engine, but he was also very strong in the brake. And this did not help me to overtake him and go, because I could have been 4ꦺ-5 tenths faster for the last 3 laps.

"But in th🍎e end it's two points and it's good because in the dry I really wasn't sure if I 🎃could finish the race. Yesterday the wrist was really painful after a few laps and also this morning I only did four laps in a row and it was painful."

Had it been the hardest two points of his Mo💜toGP career?

"No maybe not the hardest. Because when I was catching one or two points last year sometimes I was destroyed afte🍰r the race!" Zarco replied, referring to his KTM woes. "Now after the race I'm feeling good."

Despite 12-years in motorcycle grand prix, Sunday was the first time Zarco had raced with a significan♍t injury.

"Even I've been surprised on Saturday, that with pꦆain in the wrist I could be almost faster t💧han last week," Zarco said.

But he did admit that the events of the previous Sunꦆday, when and Morbidelli tangled through the fast Turn 2 kink, had played on his mind. While Zarco h🍰ad overtaken in the same place again, by backing off to try and stay on the left on the exit he had been repassed.

"Clearly with my bike I can overtake the guys in fifth gear in the straight, on the left [approaching Turn 2]," he said. "Three ti🥀mes I got the opportunity to overtake there. I to♛ok it because you are in a race, when you can overtake in the straight you don't wait.

"But then on the brakes [for Turn 3] I was ✃doing my best to stay on the left and then the others were passing me because I was braking so early."

Quartararo confirmed: "I think Johann was th𒀰inking about [last weekend]. He was braking a little bit earlier. But for me, it was no issues in turn two. I was still trying to brake late as possible."

Zarco, who will remain with Ducati next season but is tipped to switch from a GP19 to a GP20 run the Pramac team, is now twelfth in the world champions🥃hip.

Morbidelli finished 2.5s behind Zarco, in 15th.