Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller saw the last vestiges of his 2020 MotoGP title hopes wiped out by an errant Brad Binder just ten seconds into the second Aragon race.
But the down-to-earth Aussie is pragmatic about the nerfing, saying that he, like almost all the other Ducatis, had no pace all weekend in Spain.
Miller failed to make it out of qualifying one on Saturday and attributes his grid slot as part of the reason he ended up in the gravel at turn two.
"I made a decent start, passed about three blokes into turn one, then the next thing I knew I was on the floor at turn two. It happened so fast, I was on the gas, and then I was in the dirt after getting a whack from behind," said Miller
"I looked up and saw it was Brad , who's a guy I like, and I just threw my hands up – 'what the f**k Brad?!' But, you know, it happens. He said it happened so fast for him that the first he knew about it was when we were laying in the gravel, so he was about as surprised as I was.
"Sometimes you get hit, sometimes you're the one who does it to someone else. I'd probably be more pissed off if I had a great result taken from me but when you qualify 14th like I did, then this is what can happen in the first few corners.
"Was a good old whack too, I'm pretty thankful that I feel OK now because both shoulders and knees copped it and the seat was basically destroyed, so I was pretty happy to walk away. And it wasn't like I had an amazing result taken from me, based on how things had gone all weekend.
All day Saturday I was losing grip coming into the corners, the last corner especially, and I was still pretty much scratching my head after qualifying. In the long left-handers like the last corner, the others just seemed to have way more grip than I had at any stage on corner entry.
"I was a bit surprised that we hadn't made much progress since we were here a week ago, I felt I was riding at the limit, but clearly that limit wasn't good enough. I just didn't have any feeling whatsoever.
"It obviously wasn't going to be easy from that far back on the grid, so I guess we had to cross our fingers and hope for something magical on Sunday. I didn't see much happening to be honest, turns out I was right about something this weekend.
"That's three DNFs in the last five – a tear-off in the airbox in Misano, the engine problem in Le Mans and then this. Not a lot I could do about any of them really.
"Speed-wise, we just didn't have it here – last weekend was pretty average but it was good compared to this one. I was quietly confident that I could do something in the race and I went for the medium tyres again like last week, hoping I could just be calm in the first few laps and then pick a few blokes off as the race wound down.
"I was hardly on podium pace or anything but there were some top ten points for me. The plan was to be there at the end, not on my arse in two corners. But it is what it is."
