Jack Miller: Yamaha “making headway” with V4, Razgatlioglu “on ice”

Fresh from Fabio Quartararo giving Yamaha’s new V4 its strongest MotoGP weekend yet at Le Mans, two Yamaha riders secured direct Qualifying 2 places in Catalunya on Friday.

 This time it wasn’t Quartararo leading the way, but Pramac’s Jack Miller, who lapped just 0.2s from the top for ninth place on the timesheets.

“When you say two tenths and ninth, it doesn't even sound real!” smiled Miller, speaking to MotoGP.com after the session.

“I felt good from the get-go here in Barcelona. It's one of the tracks we've been to that I've ridden the V4 at before, so we kind of had a rough idea.

“Obviously, it's quite a different bike now from what we rode last year.  But in general, happy with the day, happy with the pace.

“Then for the single lap attack, I was able to put Bez in front of me and really get the hammer down.”

However, the V4's lack of engine performance remains a hindrance on the main straight.

“Obviously, we're still missing some straight-line speed. I think we're about 11,-12 k an hour down in the speed trap, but thankfully here you're only really using the power on the main straight,” Miller said.

“The rest of the track, because there's no grip, you're just trying to find traction.

“Together with the boys, from the get-go today we've kind of been able to find that window and keep the bike in that window.

“Really nice to be heading into a Saturday, not going into Q1. It helps the weekend out a lot if you can be in Q2 and start just those couple extra positions in front.”

Miller’s performance came just days after Quartararo guided the V4 to a best-yet sixth place in the French Grand Prix.

“We're making headway, absolutely,” said the Australian. “I don't know what anybody else expected. Rome wasn't built in a day.

“It’s going to take trial and error, testing and tweaking, and trying to do the best we can, both on the race weekends and with Augusto and Dovi in the test team.

“I know it's only a Friday, but it's a little breath of fresh air after what's been a really trying time for all the engineers involved.”

Razgatlioglu: “Incredible - but not in a good way”

Team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu was 19th fastest, but just 0.821s from the KTM practice leader Pedro Acosta.

“This morning was incredible - but not in a good way - because honestly I felt like I had zero grip,” revealed the WorldSBK champion.

“It felt like I was riding on ice. I even came back to the pits and asked the team, ’What is this? Is there a problem with the bike or is the track always like this?‘

“But in the end I had to accept that this is simply how the track is. Everybody is riding in the same conditions and I need to adapt better to it. So I went back out and tried to improve step by step.

“I followed Fabio for a while and honestly I learned a lot from watching how he approached the corners. I understood that I need to trust the front tyre more and, thanks to that, in the end I improved by almost one second.

“Still, I‘m quite shocked by how strange the grip feels here, but at the same time it‘s another reminder that I need to stop thinking with my old Superbike habits and continue adapting myself to this completely new phase of my career with the MotoGP bike.

“I‘m looking forward to tomorrow because I want to put into practice even better what I learned today and hopefully make another step forward.”