Miller: Biggest surprise Suzuki, 'they found some ponies in Japan'
Jack Miller was satisfied with his sixth fastest lap time during day one of the Qatar MotoGP.
It puts him comfortably on course for direct access to Qualifying 2 assuming - as expected – the daylight FP3 session proves slower.
"Today was OK, I'm not complaining. We had some issues on the bike in the second free practice, so I would have liked to have done a few more laps in that, but anyway, the bike was working pretty well in terms of setting," said Miller, who two places behind the top Ducati of Jorge Martin (Pramac).
"There's still some areas where we can improve, but it's always nuts when you haven't ridden this track in a year, then you have first free practice in the daylight, and then FP2 is essentially Q1, and you're throwing tyres at it.
"I think my best lap time in both races last year was a 1'53.1, and I did a 1'53.6 today after 45 minutes on the track, more or less. Pretty happy with that. Inside the top ten, so was definitely my main target for today.
"We have some areas that we need to improve to make the bike better throughout the weekend, but in general, I feel really good, both physically and my feeling on the bike. So I'm excited for the weekend to come."
Miller's best lap time was 0.435s from fastest man Alex Rins, but it was the Suzuki's rider's place at the head of the top speed charts that surprised Miller - and many others – the most.
"The biggest surprise to me was Suzuki, 'playing possum' [lying low] all winter and then coming out with 355 km/h today, so clearly they found some ponies there in Japan. But all the rest is good."
While Rins set the maximum speed of the day at 355.2km/h, in both FP1 and FP2, his team-mate Joan Mir recorded the highest average top speed (best five speeds) at 354.0km/h.
"It was amazing!" smiled Rins. "Never before has it happened in the five years I’m in MotoGP. In the afternoon I repeated the speed. But don’t say too much!
"As a rider you always want to improve things. We pushed so hard to improve the aerodynamics side. Since last year's race in Qatar we have a new engine, we have the ride-height device. It helps us to at least 'breathe' on the straight. Before there was more tension, now it's calm."
"The character of the bike is the same. Now we just have a little bit more on top speed but this doesn’t make our life more difficult on the change of direction or in the middle of the corners because the power delivery is really similar," Mir added.
"It [engine] was not a revolution but it was a clear evolution, especially on the high rpms and we could see more top speed. Last year was really difficult here, but it’s not that we made a huge step, it's that now we have the ride-height device and also improved the engine."
Matching Mir on a top speed best of 354.0 was the Aprilia of Maverick Vinales, Ducati (GP21) of Enea Bastianini and Honda of Pol Espargaro.
Miller, who like team-mate Francesco Bagnaia is using a mix of 2021 and 2022 engine parts, ranked middle of the charts with a 351.7km/h.
"I guess we had a little bit of a tail wind today, but I didn't get in any slipstream also, so I can't tell whether - or how far - we are off," said the Australian.
Bagnaia and Pramac's Johann Zarco both clocked 362.4km/h in Qatar last year.
But if Miller was surprised by Suzuki, spare a thought for reigning champion Fabio Quartararo, whose Yamaha uses the same inline (four-cylinder) architecture as the GSX-RR, but sat at the very bottom of the speed charts with a 343.9km/h in FP2.
"I hope [Yamaha] are investigating [what Suzuki have done], because now it's starting to be too much," said the Frenchman, who has been urgently requesting more top speed since last season. "Basically I don't understand how it's possible.
"But now we are in the 2022 [season], we can't make anything more, so I will not complain from now to Valencia. But I mean it's not normal to be more than 10 km/h slower."
Saturday's action will feature the final pair of free practice sessions, followed by the night-time qualifying.
