MILLER PLEASED WITH GRADUAL PROGRESS

Jack Miller pleased with gradual progress – Image: LAT

Australian MotoGP rider Jack Miller impressed during his first official test on the factory Ducati in Qatar, concluding both days inside the top five.

By DAN McCARTHY

The 26-year-old Queenslander has stepped up from the satellite Pramac Ducati squad to the factory team in 2021.

Miller explained that the bike is working great and is slowly becoming accustomed to his new machine and team.

“The bike’s working really well, the team is working fantastic, I’m just getting to grips with everybody, and enjoying the time in the garage, that’s the main thing,” Miller said.

“I just took it step by step and was able to go for a little bit of time attack there at the end, conditions still aren’t fantastic out there, so I didn’t throw everything at it, but I had a lot of fun, it’s always good to get the blood flowing like that again.

“I’m more or less satisfied with the job we’ve done here in the first test.”

Miller ended the first day in fourth position with a time of 1m 55.022s, just over three-tenths of a second slower than factory Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro who was fastest.

On Day 2 Miller looked more comfortable and ended the day second on the timesheets, only Fabio Quartararo was faster, 0.077s up the road.

Dust and wind were a major issue on the opening day, but conditions improved for Day 2 and allowed riders to go much faster.

On Sunday Miller set a 1m 54.017s time, over a second faster than what he achieved the previous day.

Last season was one of the closest fought and unpredictable MotoGP seasons in history, and after the opening test (in which the top dozen riders were separated by just 0.7s) Miller believes that this season will be no different.

“That’s the scary thing, everyone’s already so close and we got another three days test plus the race weekend, it’s going to be interesting come the Sunday of the race, the times are going to be so close,” he feels.

One advantage the Ducati’s have had in recent years is in straight-line speed and at the end of the test the top five bikes were all ‘Bologna Bullets.’

However, Miller feels the Italian manufacturer still has some key things to work on.

“There’s still some areas of the bike we need to work on and just try and get some more performance out of, but in all a great way to end the first test,” Miller said.

Ducati debuted a new aero package at the test and Miller believes it is something the squad may run in Qatar.

“I feel like it might (be used for the race), I pretty much ran it all day today, I only did one back to back on the old one but we’ll see, they could well bring something even better,” he joked.

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