10/22/2021 |
Christina Bulpett |
MotoGP
Picture: GeeBee Images
The second Friday back at Misano saw Ducati’s Jack Miller navigate the drying track almost a full second quicker than the MotoGP pack.
Miller topped the times thanks to his 1’41.305 lap, set on his 10th of 19 in the afternoon session. With the Australian quick to praise his Desmosedici’s handling of the day’s challenging conditions, having compared notes with one of the Bologna Factory’s former stars, Andrea Dovizioso.
“Just speaking with Andrea, somebody who rode the bike for many years and knows how it works and performs in the wet, and then seeing him struggled a little bit more on the Yamaha when it comes to wet conditions,” Miller said on Friday evening . “We all know he’s generally one of the faster guys in the wet but he seems to be having more issues with the Yamaha than he did with the Ducati.
“I think it comes down to our mechanical grip side of things, where you’ve got a lot of rear grip in the wet, but also the way that the bike behaves and does that sort of thing. The whole package basically definitely helps.
“I don’t want to blow our own horns or anything like that but myself and [Johann] Zarco, we’re pretty quick in the wet. We always have been – Zarco also on a Yamaha, myself also on a Honda. We’ve always been generally pretty quick in the wet but for sure I think having the bike that we do, definitely helps.
“I was always quick on the Honda in the wet, but you know I’d throw it at the wall plenty of times or that sort of thing, whereas I feel with the Ducati with the way it works, it’s definitely more user friendly, I guess you could say. You get a lot more feedback out of it, you understand what the bike’s really doing in the wet, so makes days like today. You don’t stress about going out and riding the thing in the wet because you’ve got that much feedback and understanding and, even when the bike lets go it gives you plenty of warning and reaction time. The same with the front, using the carbon brakes now in the wet, you’re able to react so quickly on the lever that you get a great feedback from the bike and you can really react and those little quick ones that you get in the wet, you’re able to react and avoid a crash, which is really, really, really nice.”
With a mixed forecast hanging over the Emilia Romagna weekend, Friday’s times could be important for Saturday’s qualifying progressions, but with Miller sitting almost a full second clear of Zarco and Aleix Espargaro, in second and third, his place in Q2 looks reasonable set. Even if the information gleaned from today’s practice could be discarded in a dry race come Sunday.
“Nobody knows what the weather condition’s gonna do,” Miller admitted. “Is saying dry at the moment, we’ll have to wait and see. For sure they’re not of massive amount of use, I don’t think. I feel like once you get a base sitting in the wet, you’re alright but the problem is if you don’t go and do the whole session, each session and then you do have a stuff up or whatever. The first people to come and blame you and say you should have been out there are all you mob!” He joked before continuing.
“Also with the Q1/ Q2 situation, we have to go out and try and we don’t know what the weather’s gonna be like tomorrow morning, if there’s gonna be a lot more standing water or anything so it was important today I think to do a lap time I think now it’s more important than ever to do a lap time in every session.”