Jack Miller: 16-18 riders have ‘big chance’ of victory

Ten different riders may have finished on the MotoGP podium already this season, but Jack Miller believes ’16-18’ of the current grid start the Spanish GP weekend with a ‘big chance’ of victory.

Peter McLaren

28 Apr 2022

Jack Miller , Portuguese MotoGP, 21 April

Revising his initial prediction from ‘19-20’ of the 26-strong Jerez grid, which includes wild-cards Lorenzo Savadori and Stefan Bradl, defending race winner Miller explained:

“Besides some of the rookies, I think everybody has a chance. That’s the way it is now in MotoGP. Okay, maybe not 19-20, I know Dovi and those guys are struggling a little bit more, but the guys that are in the top 16-17-18 have a big chance.

“Because it can turn like that and everybody has so much information here that this track is kind of a free-for-all. If you look at the times from testing last year, they were ridiculous.

“I think if anything’s been shown this year, it’s that nothing is predictable in MotoGP. So the biggest thing is just to be up there all weekend, try my best on Sunday and see what happens. “

While Miller’s factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia pulled 0.452s clear of the field at last November’s test, 18th place Jorge Martin was just 1.1s behind second-place Fabio Quartararo.

Miller returns to Spain as one of ten riders on the present grid to have previously won at Jerez in a grand prix class. He’s also eager to make amends for last Sunday’s mistake in Portimao, where he fell and took down Joan Mir while battling for a second podium of the season.

“I feel really good, I feel happy with my bike,” said Miller, who feels he now has a proven base setting for the GP22.

“For sure it’s super difficult at the moment in MotoGP to try and make passes. Just watching last weekend’s race back and understanding the mistake that I made and what I need to do to try and improve. That’s all we can do.

“I know where we are at. I feel quietly confident coming in here. I’m definitely happy we found our direction [with the bike] and we’ll see if it works here as well.

“Jerez is always a big compromise between stability and turning and I feel like with our base setting we should be in a good position.”

Jack Miller: Bastianini was 'leaping clear'

Miller wasn’t the only Ducati rider to DNF last Sunday, with Enea Bastianini another high-profile faller, costing the Gresini star the title lead to Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins.

“The fact that Bastianini fell last weekend just shook things up again,” Miller said. “ I felt like he was sort of leaping out to be the clear favourite because he’s generally really, really consistent.

“But having that fall has put a lot more guys in a really close area. The points are all very close still considering how many winners we’ve had and what not. It’s just more of that to expect for the rest of the season I feel.”

Miller, currently tied for ninth in the world championship with Bagnaia, Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro, 38 points from the top, added:

“It feels like a qualifying lap, every single lap of the race. Everybody is under the same sort of scrutiny and all the bikes are that competitive that it’s not easy to make passes at the moment.

“And if you do make a couple of mistakes, to try and make those positions back isn’t like it used to be, especially for us Ducati riders, we can’t just put the indicator on and pass everybody on the outside lane [like before]! We’ve got to set it up.

“It’s just the competitiveness of the class with everyone getting their bikes going really well. I think all the bikes have their strong and weak points. It all makes it very very difficult… you have to approach each bike with a different sort of strategy.

“But you’re always going to be under pressure with the times and the speed that MotoGP is at, at the moment.”

After arm pump problems for Fabio Quartararo, Miller and Bagnaia formed a Ducati one-two at Jerez last season, being joined on the rostrum by Yamaha's Franco Morbidelli.

The ten different riders to appear on the podium is despite the likes of Morbidelli and fellow MotoGP race winners Marc Marquez, Bagnaia and Joan Mir being without a top three so far this season.