Australia’s Jack Miller says he believes that he can shoot for a podium finish at this weekend’s Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix given the way his Pramac Racing Ducati GP17 is setup at the moment.

Miller, along with Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso were having a hit of tennis at Rod Laver Arena precinct at the home of the Australian Open, with Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt and star coach Francois Vogelsberger. 

“We have been really close on a lot of occasions this year,” said Miller, who has finished fourth twice this year – being round two at Argentina in April and the French MotoGP round in mid-May.

Heading into the third last round this weekend, the 23-year-old Aussie feels like he is on a better machine than last year where Miller qualified in fifth place, before leading the opening four laps of the 27-lap race. However, Miller fell behind to finish in seventh place, 5.619 seconds down on race winner, Marc Márquez.

According to Miller, he knows what he did wrong at last year’s Australian round, in terms of tyre consumption. 

“I’ll take what I learnt from last year’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and use that knowledge this weekend, especially for my tyre choice and also the race strategy,” explained Miller, who sits in thirteenth place in the championship fight with 74-points to his name, nine points off from Angel Nieto Team’s Álvaro Bautista.

Despite some teething issues throughout the 2018 season, Miller is happy with his first season on the Italian machine. "We've been really close to the podium on a lot of occasions," said, Miller, who is from Townsville in Queensland, somewhat 2,741km north of Phillip Island.

"I got a pole position at the second grand prix... it's the first time I've qualified on the front row this year and to be there three times already on a year-old bike, I feel it's been a good season. There have been some dramas, we've crashed out of three races which is not ideal but I've had worse seasons that's for sure.”

Miller pointed out that his goal come the end of the year is to ‘crack’ 100 championship points an finished off with by saying that he was really excited for this weekend, as he always looks forward to his home grand prix, throughout the whole season. 

“The Australian MotoGP round is the highlight of my year. After last year’s race at Phillip Island, we did not too bad. Also the way this year has gone we have some high expectations, even higher than what we had last year and we came into the round with a broken leg,” concluded Miller, who now has 62 MotoGP starts to his name.