Miller: Means a lot to be back on the front row, gravel like river rock

Jack Miller will start tomorrow’s MotoGP race at Jerez third on the grid which is the Australian’s first front row appearance since Portimao last November. 

Miller’s late effort at the end of Q2 saw him come out on top between both factory Ducati riders, as team-mate Francesco Bagnaia will start one place further back in fourth. 

With qualifying typically a strength of Miller’s, the factory Ducati rider has been working extensively on race pace and tyre longevity in Jerez. Miller summed up his weekend so far by saying: "We did two runs which I think was like ten laps each in FP1, and the same in FP2, just trying to do longer runs and work on the race pace. 

"Generally when it comes down to it and throwing down a lap I’m not too bad. The pace has been good too. Thankfully we did a run in FP3 with 13 laps on the tyres and then I was able to do another ten lap run which ended up being around 23 laps on them (my race tyres), and it felt good, the pace was good. 

"We planned to stay out the whole FP4 session but I went out and we had an issue on the bike that took a little bit longer than we wanted to get sorted, but we got it sorted and we had to get both bikes ready for qualy. The qualy went well! I was able to do a few consistent laps. 

"I’m excited! It means a lot to be back on the front row, especially here in Jerez which is quite an important one as it can get pretty chaotic in the first few laps." 

Miller and Bagnaia were on track together during the closing stages of Q2, and with the Italian having the upper hand in sector four in previous sessions, analysing his team-mates data, along with a first hand look at the #63 seemed to help as Miller who ended up fastest in that sector overall.

"Yeah I was able to find a solution pretty simple this morning after looking into the data last night," said Miller.  

"Gradually throughout the day I was getting better and we were actually the fastest through sector four which I don’t think I’ve ever been the fastest through sector four in Jerez. 

"I don’t really know what I did too much [Laughs], but it felt good and I was able to have confidence in my bike to carry the corner speed." 

Day-two in Jerez produced many crashes, some of which were incredibly fast. 

With the runoff in certain areas being very limited for space at Jerez as we saw for both Repsol Honda riders Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro - turn seven - suffered fast and big impacts with the air fence, this was something brought up in the post qualifying press conference.  

Miller and Franco Morbidelli both shared their views on the space around Jerez, whilst it was something also discussed in Friday’s safety commission.

Starting with Morbidelli, he said: "We discussed this yesterday in the safety commission. They are going to try and increase the runoff areas, there are a couple of corners that are firstly going to be done - turn seven not included, but with time I think that this track is gonna increase it’s safety. 

"It’s a great track, riding here is unbelievable. It’s a great taste to ride here, but it is true that the runoff areas are pretty close. 

"This morning I had a moment myself. I got on track and had no brakes in turn six. They were cold or I had a shake, I don’t know, but I can tell you that the wall was coming towards me really fast."

When Miller was asked the same question, he used several examples of other circuits such as Aragon and the type of gravel it uses that can help decrease speed and the bouncing effect.

Miller added: "As Franco said; we discussed this yesterday. For me, the biggest thing that needs to happen here is the gravel. 

"The size of the gravel here is like a river rock. It's big pieces of gravel and you will notice that nobody ever really goes into the gravel. 

"They always bounce on top and it’s not really soft like some places such as Aragon where it is really soft and they can fluff it up. It decelerates you a lot quicker."