Maverick Vinales has broken Yamaha’s 25 MotoGP race winless streak after a stunning ride around Phillip Island.

Starting from the middle of the front row, the Spaniard suffered a now typically slow start, however with his hard rear tyre, the Spaniard kept calm and rode a near perfect race to hold off Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso to claim his, and Yamahas, first win of 2018.

Falling down as low as ninth in the opening stages, Vinales remained clam and was soon in the lead by lap eight, leading his Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi. However, once at the front, Vinales found the confidence that has been missed to put in a straight of stunningly fast laps to gap the rest of the field and build a comfortable cushion of around four seconds.

Despite a late charge from Iannone, Vinales’ rear tyre had enough in it to hold off the Spaniard and give Yamaha third first win since Assen 2017 and Vinales his first win since Le Mans 2017.

Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the podium finishers in third place ahead of his temporary team-mate for the weekend Alvaro Bautista in fourth place.

Vinales was helped forwards after a scary crash involving World Champion Marc Marquez and Joahnn Zarco in the early stages. Caught in the slipstream of Miller, Zarco found himself with nowhere to go and ended up hitting the rear of the Spaniard.

Thrown off his M1, Zarco somehow walked away unharmed, whilst Marquez was forced to pull into the pits and retire.

Alex Rins beat out Rossi on the final lap for fifth with the Italian having to settle for sixth. Jack Miller was seventh despite some good pace in the opening stages, the home rider faded away.

Franco Morbidelli was eighth ahead of Aleix Espargaro and Bradley Smith who rounded out the top ten. Karel Abraham was eleventh on his Ducati, just ahead of Petrucci, Scott Redding, Taka Nakagami and Xavier Simeon who rounded out the point scorers.