Lenovo Ducati’s Jack Miller hit a grip wall with the soft rear Michelin in yesterday’s MotoGP season opener in Qatar and says he now has seven days to find the seven seconds he lost to Maverick Vinales over the 22-lap grand prix.
Miller was in contention early doors with three other Ducatis but even though he was managing his tyres, the grip fell off the edge of a cliff and he had nothing left to mount a podium challenge.
“We had a really good start, was able to push as I liked – not too hard at the beginning but maybe 12-14 laps to the end, when [Maverick] Vinales came past, I said, ‘OK now it’s time to start upping the pace’,” said Miller, speaking at the track.
“I was able to drop my pace to the low 1’55s for a few laps and then, bang, I sort of hit a wall and started losing the rear mid-corner. I was just trying to manage the tyre in the beginning and it didn’t really work so we need to understand what I’m doing, what the others are doing. It’s the first race of the season, we start from here.”
Miller was unsurprised by the pace shown by both Suzuki riders at the end of the race and believes that Vinales was just more consistent than everyone else.
“Suzuki didn’t show everything in the tests, I expected that. They are gentle on the tyres and they have confirmed last year’s performance. Maverick Vinales didn’t set impressive lap times, but he was consistent and we weren’t. We now have seven days to find seven seconds.”
