MILLER RUES AUSTRIAN CRASH

Aussie MotoGP rider Jack Miller has lamented both tyre grip struggles and overly ambitious riding which saw him crash out of the Styrian Grand Prix.

Miller sat at the front of the field in the opening laps and was fighting for third place with Fabio Quartararo late in the race when he rode too quickly into Turn 7 and lost the front end, sliding into the gravel trap.

This ended Miller’s race and left him without championship points in Spielberg.

The 26-year-old struggled with grip on the right-hand side edge throughout the race, but believes the front tyre was not the reason for his undoing.

“A lot of people have asked me that but it wasn’t the front,” said Miller.

“I was suffering since the beginning on the right edge trying to get the thing out of a corner, I was suffering to start accelerating. Once I was in the drive grip it was really good.

“Towards the middle of the race it seemed like Fabio has lost his edge grip and drive grip and I had more, the front was mega. He was struggling to stop the bike in some places whereas mine felt rock solid.”

Miller was relentless in his pursuit of the championship leader, but eventually exceeded the limits of his Ducati Lenovo Team bike.

“I was trying to get close enough so I could try and attack,” Miller explained.

“Three laps in a row I got right on his tail and I was just trying a little bit more to get a little bit closer on that last lap, but that was all she wrote.”

The Queenslander now sits fifth in the overall standings, after failing to finish the last two races in the Netherlands and Austria.

Italian teammate Francesco Bagnaia is fourth on 114 points.

Quartararo, Miller’s overtake target at the Red Bull Ring, is on top of the championship a further 58 points ahead.

The championship implications were not lost on Miller, who also fell further behind Johann Zarco and Joan Mir, who are placed second and third respectively

“Those ones are super hard to take because we had nearly three seconds back to Johann (Zarco), it felt like I nearly had it in the pocket but it wasn’t to be, not today,” Miller lamented.

“The team did a fantastic job, the bike was good all weekend. We have to read the data and find out what the issue was off the edge and try to improve that for next week.”

MotoGP returns for the Austrian Grand Prix at the same venue this weekend.

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