Australia’s Jack Miller, riding a KTM, has won the Qatar Grand Prix Moto3 race to capture his maiden career triumph.

Spanish duo Alex Marquez, the younger brother of MotoGP world champion Marc, and Efren Vasquez, both on Hondas, took second and third respectively in the season-opening event.

The 19-year-old Miller, who was seventh in the world championship in 2013, duelled with Marquez over the course of the 18-lap race and made the most of a late error by the Spaniard on the last lap.

Miller enjoyed a flying start as pole sitter Alex Rins, on a Honda, slipped back to 10th on the opening lap with the Australian settling into the slipstream of Marquez.

For most of the race, the pair led the rest of the field by up to two seconds with the chasing group headed by KTM’s Isaac Vinales, Vazquez and Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira.

In a thrilling conclusion, the top six riders were covered by just 0.586sec.