Jack Miller says there’s no hard feelings between him and Alex Márquez after the Spaniard punted him out of the lead group of his home grand prix.
Miller was running in seventh and in contention for victory when Márquez botched his braking while attempting to pass Luca Marini for eighth.
The LCR Honda rider speared into the back of Miller’s Ducati and rode up the Aussie’s spine, sending them both tumbling into the run-off and out of the race in a sickening crash.
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Ironically the episode took place at turn 4, which on Saturday was renamed Miller Corner.
Márquez was spotted by TV cameras later during the race entering the Ducati garage to seek out Miller to apologise.
Speaking to reporters after the grand prix, the Spaniard was contrite for his mistake, which the stewards later punished with a long-lap penalty for the next race in Malaysia.
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“First of all, I’m really sorry for Jack at his home GP,” he said. “I understand that he was angry. He had all the reasons [to be].
“We lost a good opportunity today to make a really good job and a really good result, but life is like this.
“He did it also in the past, some mistakes in his first years. It’s something that can happen to everybody, but it‘s not an excuse. I did a huge mistake today.”
Márquez said he was caught out by some riders bucking the tyre-saving trend early in the race and attempting to push, leading to his miscalculation.
“I was really careful on that corner because I know that it’s really easy to do a mistake, and on that lap I said, ‘Okay, I start to attack a little bit’, because everybody was passing me in that point,” he said.
“I just went in [with] a little bit more [speed]. My rear was locking, and then just a little bit from the brakes, and I carried in a lot of speed.
“I’m sorry to him, to his team.
“You‘re racing, everybody can make mistakes, but that mistake was little bit too much.”
Miller, who was only winded and bruised in the crash, was sanguine about the situation and said he’d accepted Márquez’s apology.
“What’s there to have hard feelings about?” he said. “At the end of the day, we‘re all out there trying to do our best.
“I understand he might have got a little bit carried away trying to get past Marini, but we‘ve all made mistakes. I think he’s as devastated as I am to not be finishing in the race.
“Of course it’s the first home grand prix after three years — it‘s definitely not the way I wanted to finish it.
“It’s not the day I had planned, that‘s for certain, but it is what it is. That’s the card we were dealt today.”
The Australian said he was more upset to have let down the 40,000 fans who had turned up to cheer him on than for the result itself.
“Once I got my breath back I just wandered over to the oldies and gave them a hug and said sorry,” he said.
“A lot of people have travelled — not only my family, a lot of families all the way around this joint — far and wide to see an Aussie do good, and you kind of feel like you’ve let them down, so that’s devastating.”
The race was still in its early days when Miller’s afternoon ended. The Australian had risen as high as third in a battle with Francesco Bagnaia on lap 5 before being passed back by his teammate down the straight and later being overtaken by Aleix Espargaró and Marco Bezzecchi through Southern Loop.
But the Ducati rider said he still considered himself a contender at that stage in a cagey race that ended with the top seven split by less than a second
“I’m not going to sit here and say I would’ve won today, because those boys rode really well at the front, but I felt like I had a bike that I could challenge those boys with at least,” he said. “I felt mega.
“I had a decent start. I plugged my way through, threw it up the inside of Pecco a couple of times but understood he wanted to lead the way.
“I said, ‘All right, fourth’s good enough’. I just swapped the [engine] map and I was sort of happy to hold station there and let the race come to me.
“The boys out front, especially Martin, I could see were pushing it pretty hard through turns 3 and 12, really letting it dance. There’s no longevity in that around here.
“I got to about turn 4, Miller Corner. I was mid corner, just about to release the brakes and get on the gas and got a front wheel to the middle of my spine.
“Not much I could really do about that. One minute I‘m looking at the back end of Bezzecchi’s bike and the next minute I was seeing stars.”
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The crash put Miller out of championship contention, 54 points behind teammate and new leader Bagnaia.
His chances were only ever slim, though, and now 27 and 12 points respectively behind Espargaró and Enea Bastianini, Miller said he was now targeting a top-three finish.
“But Aleix and Bastianini didn’t get too many points back today. My main goal is to try and beat those guys.
“I’ll try and do the best I can to try and get as close to them as possible. At the end of the day, that‘s all we can do.
“I’m happy for the team. I mean, [Bagnaia’s] now leading the world championship after they were 91 points down.
“I feel like the teams championships has got to be wrapped up [soon] now, so it’s been a good year.”
