For the first time since his Brno podium, Avi💮ntia's Johann Zarco finished as the top Ducati rider in Sunday's Teruel MotoGP at Aragon.

Although 12-seconds behind race wi๊nner Franco Morbidelli, Zarco and his GP19 were 7-seconds clear of the next best Du♏cati, factory rider Danilo Petrucci in tenth.

Starting from a strong fifth on the grid, Zarco held a podium place behind Morbidelli and Alex Rins for the opening 10 laps,💖 before being overtaken by the previous weekend's podium finishers Joan Mir (Suzuki) and Alex Marquez (Honda).

Marque🅺z then fell, leaving Zarco with his hands full defending against th🐼e KTMs of former team-mate Pol Espargaro and Tech3's Miguel Oliveira.

Espargaro was able to oveꦉrtake, but Zarco just managed to keep Oliveira at bay after a fight to the line (pictured).

"Gꦰreat race! Happy with the top five," Zarco said. "I was thinking to maybe catch a podium because at the beginning of the race I was had a very good feeling. I wanted to📖 stay with Morbidelli and Rins but they were a bit too fast to really stay comfortable behind them.

"After half the race I began to lose the control of the bike. When Mir overtook me, he was a good one to follow but he was a bit too fas🐟t. Then with Alex Marquez, the pace was OK, but he had a crash.

"I stayed alone for many laps and had a big gap over Pol, but he was catching me so I tried to manage as well as possible to bಌe ready to fight. I didn’t do it with Pol🅺, but I did it with Miguel and it was pretty good."

After struggling to get back into the top ten following his stunning Brno weekend, Zarco has now taken a pair of 5th places in three races. He's also gathering valuable Duc🐽ati experience to take to Pramac next season, when he hopes to be fighting for regular podiums on the latest Desmosedici.

"After many problems with the cold weather la𒊎st week, and this week was also not easy, we got a great qualifying and a great result – the two most important moments," Zarco said.

Responding to the suggestion that it takes most riders several years to really learn how to ♍ride the Ducati, the #5 replied:

"I'm trying to take these races as the best training possible to be stronger for next year. So that’s the most important thing. I expect hav👍ing one year [on the Ducati] will be enough to really understand everything, be competitive and fight for podiums next year.

"I also have the experience of two years with Yamaha and on♒e complicated year with KTM and a bit 𓆉with Honda. All of this can help me to understand things on the Ducati."

Zarco ༒is 14th in the world championship standings but a strong end to the season could yet see him crack the overall top ten,📖 currently 15 points ahead.