Jack Miller “punched myself in the face” during Pecco Bagnaia near miss

Jack Miller’s entertaining two-up stoppie with Alex Rins wasn’t the only drama for the Australian during Friday Practice at the Japanese MotoGP.

The Pramac Yamaha rider also revealed a near miss with former factory Ducati team-mate Pecco Bagnaia during the closing time attacks.

Miller had used a tow from the Italian to climb up the order on his first soft rear, then tucked in behind him again for a second attempt.

But when Bagnaia ran slightly deep at Turn 11, their lines began to converge just as Miller was releasing the brake.

"I punched myself in the face!"

“I had a good crack on the first tyre,” Miller said. “Felt good behind Pecco, and then slipped in behind him for the second tyre.

“It was looking real good, and then Pecco went a little bit deep off Turn 11, and he was sort of coming back, and at that moment I was releasing the brake.

“I could see trajectory-wise, as always happens in that corner, you kind of come into each other. So I tried to ask a little bit more from it, the front went, and I was heading towards him with the front [sliding].

“I thought, ‘I'm going to hit him’. And as it is when you're about to hit somebody, you kind of put everything you can to try and pull the bike away from you.

“As I did that, the bike grabbed grip, and I punched myself in the face!

“So that lap was done. I tried to do a little bit more after that, but she was all about done.”

Miller, who finished the day 18th, had dedicated some of Friday to evaluating a new Yamaha engine map.

“We had an idea from the factory for a map, just in terms of throttle progression and stuff like that. So I spent all morning trying to persevere with that, and the first exit this afternoon.

“But you give it as much time as you possibly can on the race weekend but then at a certain point you've got to get underway and start doing shit for the race.

“So after the red flag, we went back to the other map, found my rhythm and was able in the next three runs to tidy up the bike a little bit.

“I've got a little bit left up my sleeve, I believe if we can get it a little bit better stopping for those corners.

“It's pretty tricky out there, especially as you start to lean the thing in on the right side, the rear comes around quite a bit. You would have seen a few boys losing the rear on entry or, let's say, first touch of maximum lean.

“It's hard to get the engine brake right here, whether it's the new asphalt or whatever, but there's a lot of potential there as well. So we'll try and tidy it up, see what we can do tomorrow, and, yeah, have a crack.”

Soft rear for the grand prix?

Miller also suggested the soft rear tyre could remain a realistic option for Sunday’s grand prix on Motegi’s new asphalt.

“The tyres seem to be working pretty well here. We're waiting on numbers to come back from Michelin, but looks like the wear is pretty similar between the two, it's just performance is better here on the soft," he said.

“It's normally like that when the track's new. You can control the slip pretty well, so then as long as the tyre's not getting too hot, you can manage the softer tyres, so interesting to see what happens tomorrow.”

Michelin confirmed: 'Both the Soft and Medium rear remain potential options for Sunday’s Grand Prix. The Sprint will provide additional data to confirm their performance and durability over a longer distance.'

Miller was next best Yamaha rider after Fabio Quartararo, in seventh, with Rins 20th and Pramac team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu 21st.