Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller had to roll the dice with a soft Michelin rear for yesterday’s Austrian MotoGP round as he had run out of mediums and hadn’t turned any laps on the hard option.
The young Australian tried to get away from the pack in the opening laps of the re-started race but was slowly reeled in by eventual winner Andrea Dovizioso and lost second after a slight error on the penultimate corner to Joan Mir - but scored his first points at the Red Bull Ring.
“It’s about time I finally scored some points in Austria – I’d never managed it before Sunday, so to finish on the podium was a really strong race for us,” said Miller.
“Good for Ducati with Dovi winning too, after both of us were nowhere last time in Brno. Third was a bit of a shame because it looked like I’d get second, but I made a slight error on the second-last corner and Mir punished me for it.
“But back on the podium – third again, just like last year five times – first time this year, and after I took a gamble with the tyres – I’ll take that.
“When we had the re-started race after of the crash for Johann (Zarco) and Franky (Franco Morbidelli), I made the decision to go with the soft tyres even if it looked a bit dodgy that I’d be able to stretch them for 20 laps.
I figured I could do six laps on them flat-out in qualifying, so six laps, 20 laps … could I stretch it? As it was, we didn’t have any new medium tyres left for the restarted race, and I hadn’t tried the hard all weekend so I wasn’t going to go there.
“It definitely worked for the first 10 laps when I was leading, but after Dovi passed me I knew I’d be defending from behind than being able to run with him at the front, and I nearly made it.
“I think we’ll need to find some more speed for next week when we’re back here again. Austria has been a bogey race for me, so it was good to get a healthy haul of points and I got the monkey off my back.
“These back-to-backs are always hard and everyone seems to lift their games, so hopefully we can do that too. One place more next week would be good, two places would be better – I’d take that.”
