Slick call’s end enrages Miller
DAYS from saddling up for the third round of the MotoGP, Townsville rider Jack Miller has described his emotions after he narrowly missed out on a podium finish in Argentina.
The 23- year- old larrikin Ducati rider said the fourth- place finish in the South American leg of the championship left him “kind of happy, kind of confused, kind of p*** ed off” in a tweet.
Miller risked running on slick tyres unlike the rest of the field during a wet qualifier when he believed the track would later dry.
“We went to the grid, and I felt it wasn’t going to rain any more and stayed out there on slicks,” Miller said.
“For me, slicks was the way to go, there’s no way we should have started on wets and the weather afterwards proved that.” The other MotoGP riders soon realised their mistake and made for the pits to change tyres, leaving Miller waiting on the start grid as organisers delayed the start.
“So the others all peel back in, I’m sitting there on pole position wondering where the hell everyone is, and then they delay the start by 15 minutes,” Miller said.
“Everyone else made the wrong call by choosing the wrong tyres – we didn’t. So why do I get penalised for that?”
That was not the only incident in the Argentinian race.
Spanish rider Marc Marquez was penalised a number of times for separate incidents during the race, including an irresponsible overtaking move which forced MotoGP veteran Valentino Rossi to crash.
For Miller, Marquez became an an- noyance from the start after he stalled and delayed the race start.
“On the grid, when he stalled it and then was going backwards, forwards, doing three- point turns or whatever he was doing, that was a bit weird.
“I was more thinking about my tyres and how they were cooling off waiting for him to get himself organised.
“‘ What the hell are you doing?’ was a polite version of what was going through my mind at the time.”
British rider Cal Crutchlow finished first followed by Frenchman Johann Zarco and Spaniard Alex Rins.
Miller headed to California for some training ahead of the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on April 22.
He is currently placed sixth on the 2018 MotoGP World Standings with 19 championship points.