Jack Miller 'pissed' after 'scariest moment' Quartararo has ever seen

Fabio Quartararo gets a front row seat for a huge save by Jack Miller that was missed by the TV cameras during MotoGP qualifying for the Doha Grand Prix; 'He is the hero of today, big balls!'
Jack Miller, MotoGP, Qatar MotoGP 27 March 2021
Jack Miller, MotoGP, Qatar MotoGP 27 March 2021
© Gold and Goose

Jack Miller wasn't a happy man as he returned to the Ducati pits after qualifying for the Doha MotoGP.

But fourth place, and one better than last week, certainly didn't seem a disaster and the Australian later revealed:

"I'm happy with fourth, but I had another massive moment at Turn 3. It was probably bigger than yesterday, Fabio saw it live…"

"I think it was scariest moment I ever saw in MotoGP," Quartararo confirmed.

"Yesterday's save was nothing compared to what he had today. Yesterday was just one moment. Today he made that but 3 or 4 times longer and faster shaking.

"It's a shame it wasn’t on TV. But for sure it was one of the biggest moments I’ve seen in MotoGP.

"When I saw that he then improved the lap after I thought, to be polite, 'big balls'!

"For me he’s just amazing how he can reset and make that lap time at the end. He is the hero of today. Close to have a big one. It looked really scary from behind."

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As Quartararo indicated, Miller put the scare behind him to set his best time of the day on his final lap.

"On my last lap I was being gentle through there [Turn 3] but the thing let go again. So rear grip wasn't fantastic this evening and that's more-or-less what I was looking quite pissed about," said the #43.

"It was more that moment and just not really being able to go 'bang, bang' and do the two laps (cleanly)."

The qualifying scare ended a day that had begun very slowly for Miller, who was one of four riders opting to sit out the 'sandstorm' in FP3.

"I didn't even go out on track because we've got limited engines and I'm not going to suck heaps of dust through my bike and just destroy things for no reason, for no benefit whatsoever," Miller said.

"It was a complete sandstorm out there for FP3 but at least for FP4 and Qualifying there wasn't much sand flying around. But it was ridiculous in FP3. As I've said all along the temperatures double what it needs to be.

"You can ride [if the sandstorm happens again on race day], it's not an issue, as we saw everybody got around. You've got to ride to the conditions, a bit like in the wet, but for sure if the wind is hitting 40 km/h then you start to ask questions.

"When it's gusting it's [even worse] because it's not consistent so you can be doing everything normal and then be blown off the track, like happened to Oliveira a couple of years ago in Phillip Island."

Miller's debut race as a Factory Ducati rider ended in disappointment as a technical issue, thought to be tyre related, saw him drop out of the lead group to ninth.

"I feel the same as last weekend, we'll get away in a good way and then settle into the race," he said. "There are more Ducatis around me this time but my starts are always pretty good anyway and I don't really want to be leading the race in the beginning.

"So I'll have the same game plan as last week but execute it properly this week. Take two!

"We've been 11 days riding around the same track so for sure everyone is going to be fast. Everyone will be close and we'll see what happens.

"Maybe someone will try and escape but I think it'll be quite difficult to do that. So everybody could try to be patient. It’s difficult to say.

"We'll see what everybody's agenda is once the race starts and then adapt to the situation. I know what my game plan is and what I'm going to try and do. Whether or not we can do it is another question, but we'll see."

Pramac Ducati duo Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco qualified first and second with Miller's team-mate Francesco Bagnaia joining Miller and Quartararo on row two.

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