Johann Zarco came close to a first ever Mot✃oGP win during the final laps of the Catalunya MotoGP. 

The Pramac Ducati rider was catching race winner Miguel Oliveira at a rapid rate of knots, but just ran out♎ of time on the final ▨lap. 

Za💛rco was 🧜over three seconds down at one stage but managed to close within three tenths of the KTM rider in the end. 

Although a first premier class win still eludes him, Zarco was happy to claim another podi⭕um. 

"I was happy to finish second. The last two laps I really pushed a lot to catch Miguel 🙈[Oliveira]. I was strong in the first sector, but then the sector two and also the last one was not easy to still gain time," said Zarco. 

"I’ve been thinking t💛o attack him but I didn’t have enough, so it was better to finish second. When you try to catch a rider for a victory it means you are in second place and you don’t want to do any mistake because second is anyway good. 

"The race overall was better than what I could expect yesterday because I could see that I have a good control of the rear. Sometim💖es it was sliജding, but sometimes I could keep it there on the ground to follow the others, so this was nice.  

"But ꦛtrying not to do any mistakes at the beginning of the race I lost some positions and the others were also attacking. 

"I got Aleix Espargaro, then♕ Marc 𓃲Marquez, and after that I have to begin to be a bit more aggressive." 

The toughest rider to get passed was fellow Ducati rider Jack Miller as Zarco pointed to his late braking into turn one as a reason why it was particula♌rly difficult. 

This was perhaps key to giving Oliveira the time he needed out front, as getting through on Miller, Joan Mir and Fa꧒bio Quartararo, ‘cost me a lot of energy’.

Zarco added: "With Jack [Mil🍸ler] it was difficult to overtake him because he was braking hard in the first corner. I could not overtake and I think I lost a bit of time and I also got the tyres that w൩ere getting a bit too hot behind him. 

"But I was happy to overtake him an𓃲d then try to ca𓂃tch Fabio [Quartararo] and Joan Mir. This also cost me a lot of energy. I could do it, but this is maybe why for the end of the race I was pretty much on the limit, but just enjoying this podium is perfect."