Jack Miller says the still recovering Marc Márquez is the rider he’s most wary of as he plots a course to victory for his home Australian Grand Prix.
Miller will line up eighth after a closely fought qualifying session behind the second-placed Márquez, who was pipped to pole by Jorge Martin by just 0.013 seconds.
Márquez has been quick to play down his expectations for the race as his rehabilitation from broken arm surgery continues. Phillip Island is just his fourth weekend back in the sport after fourth months on the sidelines.
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But Miller, who stood on the podium at the last race here in 2019, said the Spaniard’s three victories and seven appearances in Victoria will make the difference over 27 laps on this afternoon.
“I think the biggest threat for tomorrow or the biggest contender for tomorrow would definitely have to be Mark,” Miller said. “He‘s got plenty of experience of winning around here.
“He seems to be in good form, so I think he‘s the one I’m looking at probably the most.”
Miller also picked out 2018 Australian Grand Prix winner Maverick Viñales as a dark horse despite the Spaniard lining up in 12th after sacrificing his final qualifying run to give teammate Aleix Espargaró a slipstream to fourth.
“I think he‘s quietly creeping around there,” Miller said. “He’ll be strong tomorrow in the race, and that Aprilia is generally pretty good on its tyres.”
Miller has endured an up-and-down home weekend, having looked struggled by the end of Friday, only to turn things around in FP3 on Saturday morning before returning a lukewarm eighth on the grid.
It was his worst qualifying performance since he was knocked out in Q1 at the Catalan Grand Prix in June.
But the Townsville native wasn’t stressed by the statistic. His last two races — victory in Japan and second place in Thailand — both came from seventh on the grid and were among his career-best rides, giving him hope that he will still be on track for a strong home showing with a couple of tweaks to his set-up.
“I’m always disappointed to be on eighth position at your home grand prix, but it seems to be the way of the last couple of weeks — we‘ve been on that third row, so I’m back again,” he said. “But I feel relatively good for [today’s] race.
“Nonetheless, we‘re 0.3 seconds off and we’re in eighth, so I’m sure it’s going to be a tight, close group tomorrow come race time.
“There‘s a little bit I still want to improve in the bike just to try and work out the balance just a little bit better. I was lacking a little bit of confidence in turn 2, turn 6, turn 12. If we can try to just be able to carry a little bit more corner speed through them, then we should be right.
“Those places are corners off brakes — you’re trying to really force the bike around. It’s just kind of understeering the whole way around.
“It‘s just more about getting our balance right. Yesterday we really chased to have the bike more on its nose, and I think we’ve improved that area, but we may need to bring the front back up a little bit.
“I think we need to sort of make a half-step back, just try and balance it back out and get some normality about it.”
Finding a sweet balance will be crucial to his victory chances in what’s forecast to be a strategic affair of tyre management around the super high speed and demanding Phillip Island track.
Picking the right tyre and biding time will be key to what must be a well-judged victory at the Island — as Miller knows all too well from his holeshot lead early in the 2017 race that led to an underwhelming seventh-place finish with shot rubber.
“I led those of the first seven, eight laps in this grand prix [in 2017] like a dickhead — drove off the rode off like an absolute idiot and smoked my tyres,” he said.
“I can tell you that was the longest 10 laps of my life towards the end of the race when you do that.”
But in that bittersweet memory Miller also sees opportunity.
On the grid ahead of him are three riders who haven’t completed so much as one racing lap on MotoGP machinery around Phillip Island, and several other riders has signalled that they’ll be attempting to run contrastrategies with tyres in an attempt to find an advantage over their rivals.
Miller, in his fifth MotoGP appearance in the premier class, thinks that could work to his advantage.
“A lot of young guys there that haven‘t raced here, so I think we should be able to use the experience that we’ve had with racing here and in terms of the tyres, because we’re on the different compound of tyre here to what we’ve ridden on the last grands prix throughout the whole season,” he said.
“I think we know what we need to do for tomorrow, and that‘s it.
“I think if we can manage our tyres pretty well — there are a lot of unknowns. We‘ve never raced this case of the rear tyre. I put 19 laps on the hard [in practice]. It wasn’t too bad, but I’ll be interested to see what 27 has in store for us tomorrow.”
And he said he hoped he might get be able to feed off a home-crowd advantage for an extra boost.
“The more fingers crossed, the better!” he said. “I’m feeling the extra pressure, but it‘s a good kind of pressure. I love it.
“It‘s amazing to be a part of this and to have this sort of feeling coming back to the Island after so many years and coming back to this reception.
“There are so many bloody fans out there. It‘s so good to see grandstands full.
“It‘s awesome to see the amount of support we’re getting here.”
“It‘s been amazing.”
