Jack Miller, the fastest in the pre-season tests and start five on the grid, should be in the middle of the podium battle on his debut for the factory Ducati team at the MotoGP season opener in Qatar on Sunday.
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Everything went according to plan in the beginning, with the GP21 riders using Ducati’s new double holeshot machine (front and rear) with devastating effects as they took the top four spots at Turn 1.
But Miller began to decline on lap 8, and although the Australian briefly retaliated at halftime, he was steadily slipping over the last nine laps.
“We got off to a really good start and were able to push as I wanted, not too hard at the beginning, but when Viñales got past” [lap 8] I thought now it was time to pick up the pace and I could hit the low 55s, “said Miller.
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“But then, bang, I hit a wall and started losing the stern in the middle of the corner.
“I tried to manage the tire at the beginning but it didn’t really work so we have to understand what I’m doing and what the others are doing.
“As I said, I felt extremely comfortable there in third place after Zarco overtook me. I said ‘OK, let these guys go’ and I felt like I was very calm and careful with the tires.
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“It was mostly the right side and the outgassing was where I had the biggest problem.
“I had a big moment when I started following Vinales without gas on Turn 5. I used the rear brake on the corner and lost the rear wheel and when that happens it is quite difficult to keep the cornering speed.
“We have to learn and understand what I have to change.
“Of course we don’t want to be in 9th place, but those were the cards we were dealt today. 9 points are better than 0, but we have to analyze and work on it.”
“Sure, those shitty little falls in the afternoon sessions hurt my confidence a bit, but I felt comfortable and confident about driving that evening.
“I felt like I had the pace to fight for victory … For at least half the race. We have to find 7 seconds in the next 7 days. It’s that simple.”
The headwind on the home stretch seemed to negate some of Ducati’s record breaking top speed, but Miller denied they needed to save more fuel than expected.
“The wind wasn’t ideal, but it’s the same for everyone. It was definitely not as bad as the afternoon. It was still not comfortable,” said Miller.
“But the torque maps and that were normal as expected. Qatar is a pretty user-friendly track, let’s say because you have the big straight, but the rest – apart from a couple of places like 10, 11 – you’re pretty good at the gas .
“It’s not like in Austria, where you go full throttle. It hasn’t really influenced us when it comes to fuel or anything like that.”
Ducati finished second and third behind Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales in Sunday’s race after both Johann Zarco and Miller’s teammate Francesco Bagnaia narrowly defeated Joan Mir’s Suzuki on the way to the finish line.
“I’ve been saying that all along [Suzuki] were sandbagging in the sessions and didn’t really show their full potential, “said Miller of the reigning world champion.
“And today, as we’ve seen many times in the past, they were very gentle with their tires and were very strong in the end. I would have been on the podium today if it hadn’t been for the drag race.” to the finish line.
“Maverick drove an excellent race, but the pace wasn’t 54 or anything. It was 55 and I couldn’t do that in the end.”