Miller rises to highest ranking
JACK Miller equalled his season’s best MotoGP result with a fourth- place finish at Le Mans, mere seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez.
The Townsville rider climbed to his career- best standing on the championship ladder in sixth with 49 points after Round 5.
Miller, 23, said Sunday’s race was one of his most convincing to date and even more skilful than his 2016 Dutch TT win.
“There’s never going to be anything that feels like that win, but it was raining, guys crashed out,” Miller wrote in his Red Bull blog.
“This one in France was different. Less than a second off the podium, six seconds off the win, a dry and normal day, no random stuff happening. Completely on merit. Maybe not the most exciting race for me, sure, but definitely one to be happy about.”
Miller started from seventh on the grid to finish a second off the podium and 6.314 seconds behind Marquez.
It was his eighth consecutive top 10 finish.
He battled searing track conditions on soft tyres with the Bugatti Circuit reaching a high temperature of 45C.
Chasing MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, Miller experienced a “big tyre squish” which forced him to miss an apex and go up a kerb.
It was a realisation point for Miller but did not slow the Aussie too much.
Miller set the third fastest lap on lap 17 with a time of 1min 32.39 seconds, 0.078 seconds slower than Marquez’s fastest lap.
“I tried to take Valentino for the podium but in the end I wasn’t able to do it,” Miller said.
“I would like to congratulate ( teammate Danillo Petrucci) ‘ Petrux’ for his result and thank the team for the work they have done this weekend.
“It’s a great team and they deserve this result.”
Italy’s Petrucci finished second followed by Rossi in third.
The Italian GP on June 3 will see a regulation change dubbed the “Miller Rule”, going back to the Argentina round where Miller risked running dry tyres but was forced to wait on the grid as other riders changed tyres.
“From now on, any rider that doesn’t come to the grid after the warm- up lap will have to start from pit lane and do a ride- through penalty in the race,” Miller said.