Miller 'jumping down back straight', roost breaks screen

How bad were the track conditions at COTA on day one of the Americas MotoGP?

This is what the Pramac Ducati rider had to say following the diamond grinding to try and reduce the bumps ahead of this year's race.

"The diamond grinding, I don’t know if it can work or not, but for this track and this situation it didn’t work. I mean, for me I think it's made it worse in a lot of places, especially the back straight.

"You go off-line and the roost and the dust is bad, but the bumps - the traction control and wheelie control just starts having a fit because basically you're jumping the whole way down the back straight.

"The rear tyre and front tyre are coming off the ground all the time, so the bike's like cutting in and out and it's just a pain in the arse.

"And then turn two has just got like a couple of whoops coming into it and the same coming out of turn 18. Big, big rollers. For me the bumps on the exit of 18 have been made a lot bigger than last year.

"You can see [the conditons] by the lap times today and by looking at the bike. We broke a windscreen down the back straight because of the roost.

"It's ridiculous how dirty the track is down there. I don’t know if they washed it or what but I'm keen to get to the Safety Commission and see what they have to say about it because it doesn’t look good, even on TV.

"It's worse than [the sand and dust in] Qatar. I said to the guys, 'I hope you've got the air filter in from Qatar', because we run a different air filter there. 'You're going to need that here because the dust is worse than Qatar by far'."

A rain storm is forecast for Saturday, would that make conditions better or worse?

"I'm actually wondering how it'll be to ride because I swear to god you have no idea how dusty it is," said the Australian.

"For me it would almost be like riding on mud, once it mixes with water. Okay, once it dries it'd be better [than now] but if we have to go out there and ride I'd be interested to see what the grip is.

"I feel sorry for the mechanics, when the bikes come in it'll be like a motocross grand prix!"

Miller, on pole last time in Argentina, was 14th fastest on Friday (+1.417s).

"I'm seventh or eighth overall in the other three sectors, it's just sector one I'm giving away half a second to Tito. I'm just shit there. Struggling so much in the change of direction.

"So we’ve got to try and fix sector one and then the rest of it should fall together.

"I'm pretty happy with how everything is going and looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Hopefully tomorrow will stay dry but the boys just gave me a printout [of the weather] and it's not looking good…"