Ducati’s Jack Miller secured his second-ever MotoGP victory this afternoon, his first in dominant dry form, at Jerez.
Launching from third, Miller took an early lead after an anticipated great start - thanks to the Bologna outfit’s front and rear start device and impressive acceleration - before being passed by Fabio Quartararo on lap four and dropping back into second. The Frenchman immediately carved out a strong lead before seeming to struggle, a situation the Australian took immediate advantage of, catching and overtaking him with ten laps to go.
The 26-year-old met the flag firmly in control for his second win in the class - his first coming in Assen in 2016 - and giving Ducati its first win at the Andalucian layout since Capirossi in 2006.
“I don’t know if I’m back,” the Miller joked, “I’m here finally!
“The last time I won was kind of a big old shock in the wet. This one I’ve definitely worked my arse off to arrive here and to get this. I’ve never rode that precise, that good, in my whole entire life! I don’t think I have ever done 25 laps in a row like that, but it felt fantastic” the Australian continued.
“I saw Fabio start to struggle, he got past me and got out to about 1.8, 1.9 and then he started to plateau and almost come back towards me and I was just sticking to my pace. I thought ‘I gotta go now’ and I looked at the lapboard and I thought ‘Oh, that’s a long time to be out front by yourself’ but you’ve got to have a crack at it at least!
“The bike honestly felt fantastic. I can’t thank the team enough. I think the work we did throughout this weekend really paid off in dividends, in the race. I did a lot of laps alone, a lot of laps just trying to put in pace and it worked out for us.”
Asked when he began to believe the race could be his, Miller responded with his usual humour. “Turn 12, on the last lap?” he joked before continuing.
“I didn’t believe it to be honest. I was riding around going ‘This can’t be real, this cannot be real!’ - I remember saying that to myself at turn nine - ‘There’s no way this can be real’.
“I saw what he did last year and I’m thinking ‘Fabio is gonna demolish us all’ so I thought I’d throw out the hook, get towed around for a few laps and have a decent enough gap that I can wobble around for the last few laps and hopefully get a podium. We probably got about six laps into it and he got out to that gap but he wasn’t going anymore, if anything I was starting to catch him back and then in two laps I caught back a massive chunk and I thought ‘you got to go past him, he’s dropping’. As soon as I did that, it wasn’t too hard, I knew where I could do it and where I could protect at least. The biggest surprise for me was when I came around after I passed him and seen 0.6 on the board, I was like, ‘that’s a gap, you’re kidding, that’s a gap’, and then on the next lap it was like 1.2 and I’m like ‘get going, go, go!’
“It was a lot of fun but also very stressful at the same time, especially around here. Jerez is so tight with these big bikes, it’s a lot of fun but when you’re between wheelie and with the device we have, and then trying to switch maps and be as precise as possible, it’s not easy. It’s a long race around here but it makes it all the more sweeter.
“I’ve never done this in my life! I’ve normally won with a battle or something at the last corner, I’ve never been able to ride out front. As Frankie knows, I’m always good at sitting behind him for the last couple of laps and waiting till the last corner to have a dig, it just was amazing! Like I said, the bike was phenomenal. I’ve always looked at a Lorenzo’s style race - get out front and go - and thought ‘geez, that’d be nice, just cruise around for the rest of the race, last five laps, no stress’, but I was thinking to myself, ‘if you’re ever going to do one of those races, today’s your chance so give it a go’ and I was able to do it.
“I entered turn one and I was in disbelief, turn two was starting to cry, turn five was like screaming and carrying on and it’s just been like that ever since. Honestly I can’t believe it. I guess you try for something your whole life, pretty much, and when it finally happens, the one thing you think about let’s say 90% of the time - when you’re training, when you’re doing everything, when you go to bed, you dream about this moment - and when you can finally achieve it, you just go through that roller coaster. You don’t want to believe it, you think it’s not true, that this can’t be possible because you’ve been wrong so many times before, and then it hits you.
“I’m sorry to make everyone cry. I’m sorry to look like a big softy on TV but I couldn’t hold it back. Honestly, I was trying to fight it but to hear everybody clapping and applauding me in pitlane. I try and be the most genuine person I can be, I’m always happy and try to say hello to everybody and I think this connection helps, When I win I feel like there’s a lot of people that want me to do good, so it meant a lot today, definitely.
“I’ve been on a roller coaster of emotions since the finish but for sure these last weeks haven’t been easy. I’ve been angry, frustrated, not believing or not trusting in myself. Now I have a new life coach - normally it’s my Mom - but Lucy Crutchlow called me up just out of the blue throughout the week and was telling me, quite aggressively, ‘You are fucking good, you can do it!’. Even this morning she sent me a text, so I have to say a massive thank you to Lucy because it feels good to hear stuff like this sometimes. You need it. At the end of the day we’re all human, we all have doubts. Cal is just gonna tell me that he told me everything I know and that I wouldn’t be here without him!”
There was delight all round for the Ducati squad as teammate Pecco Bagnaia joined his captain for the celebrations with an extraordinary one-two finish at Jerez.
“Pecco did a fantastic job” Miller explained. “He was there pushing me to the end. I saw on the pit board it was dropping and I was thinking ‘surely not on the last lap!’. I was trying to ride to the pitboard and just keep a decent bit of a gap. I didn’t even know how close he was on the last lap but I buried it up the inside of the last corner like I was protecting it in a Moto3 race and I had three bikes behind me but it was just me on my own so I felt like a bit of a twat!
‘The most fantastic thing I think I’ve seen this weekend, was on the TV. I’ll never forget, it was my first podium, Pecco’s first podium also in the Spanish Championship. You think back to then, think that we would be teammates in the factory Ducati team and be one-two in Jerez in 2021, you don’t believe it. You would say ‘you’re dreaming’ but dreams do come true - 10 years later, there you go. Pretty impressive!
“A massive thank you to the team, they never give up on us. Claudio, Gigi, Paolo and Davide, they’ve had my back the whole time, these last couple of weeks especially, I can’t thank them enough.
“I don’t like that ‘this is not a Ducati track’ stuff because I think we proved last year that it was a Ducati track. Dovi and I went third and fourth in the first race - I had massive arm pump and Dovi was able to get round me but we went third and fourth in the first race - and Pecco honestly probably could have won the second race, and had that mechanical. So I think we proved already last year that this package works pretty good around here but to break a 15-year drought here definitely feels good.
“I am going to drink about 30 beers and hopefully wake up without a hangover so I can ride tomorrow.”