Bagnaia regains championship lead after race-long duel with SA's Brad Binder in Spain

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia held off a frantic late counter-attack by Brad Binder in Jerez on Sunday to win the Spanish Grand Prix and take the lead in the MotoGP standings.

Italian Bagnaia, on a factory Ducati, overtook South African Binder, on a KTM, with four laps to go and resisted a fightback.

Australian Jack Miller, who led for the first half of the race, was third on another KTM.

Bagnaia struggled in practice on Friday and had to go through the qualifying repechage to earn a chance to compete for a place on the first four rows on the starting grid.

"Very long weekend," he said. "I was a bit in trouble Friday. I needed time to be used to this bike on this track."

"Off the backstraight I thought I had it kind of dialled in" ??? - @BradBinder_33The #TissotSprint winner elaborates on his chances to prepare a last-corner attack on @PeccoBagnaia and @jackmilleraus enters the discussion ??#SpanishGP ???? pic.twitter.com/qwhSswisXH

Charging Italian

The race was quickly halted on Sunday after Fabio Quartararo, Miguel Oliveira and pre-race championship leader Marco Bezzecchi all crashed on the opening lap.

It was also punctuated by penalties with both Bagnaia and Miller among those forced to give up a place mid-race.

Binder and Bagnaia were both attempting to bounce back after two bad results on the Americas and the South African had edged the sprint race the evening before.

READ: SA's Brad Binder finishes a brilliant 2nd in Spain after leading for bulk of race

On Sunday, Binder could not hold off the Italian.

"It was fantastic to finish the main race again today - the last two I messed up," Binder said.

"It was nice to be out front and lead. I kept seeing a little gap. I thought 'Okay, I've done the job. I just need