Miller unsure about Austria struggle

Jack Miller is still unsure about why he fell off the radar at a tough Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix.

Whilst his KTM teammate Brad Binder signed a long-term extension and scored Saturday and Sunday podiums, it was a different story for Miller.

The Aussie showed strong qualifying speed, putting #43 on the second row and mixed it for the podium early on.

But as the laps ticked up, it was a familiar story as Miller drifted deeper down the pack and further away from the lead.

Whilst he still held a top five result in the Sprint, the Grand Prix was a much tougher affair.

Despite shooting up to third in the early stages when the chequered flag fell Miller was down in 15th, a full 20s away from teammate and runner-up Binder.

Whilst it is far from the first time Miller has started strong, but faded in the back half of a race, it had never been so pronounced as at the Red Bull Ring.

The Aussie admitted he is still unsure why he lost so much pace, but pointed towards some changes made three races ago at Assen.

“It was just a struggle and I don’t know why or how yet,” Miller wrote on his website.

“But I was suffering with missing grip from the very beginning and the last eight laps were about trying to survive out there. 

“We made some changes a few races ago in Assen and it doesn’t seem like it’s been working great, so now we try to maybe take a step back and evaluate the changes that we’ve made to attempt to go forward.

“We probably need to go back to the drawing board, to be honest.”

Miller started the weekend on the back foot being forced to ensure the stressful Q1 knockout session to stay in the fight for pole.

Having bounced back and qualified fifth, he actually believed a podium could have been possible.

It was a weekend that started and ended not great, but the middle was decent,” Miller continued.

“On Friday I did not have a great feeling with the bike and felt pretty terrible which is why we ended up in Q1.

“Then on Saturday things were pretty positive and we gained some valuable information.

“With a small step it felt like we had podium potential and then Sunday came and that was all she wrote.”

When digging deep into the Sunday struggles, Miller revealed it all started with a lack of grip on corner exit.

“I just struggled with missing grip, started really suffering on the (corner) exits straight away,” he said. 

“I started getting into trouble with guys passing me on the straight, my top speed was down simply because the exit wasn’t there out of the corners. 

“Braking felt good – the bike in the front-end was actually pretty stable and I was able to catch back up in the middle part of the lap but into all the straights, I just couldn’t accelerate.”

What made the weekend particularly heartbreaking for Miller was the location.

After racing for two years at Ducati the Aussie has moved to KTM, which enjoyed its home race at Austria on the weekend.

With an entire grandstand covered in orange supporting the brand, there was no shortage of support and Miller was devastated not to give them more to cheer about.

“I’m very disappointed for myself and for the team at KTM’s home race,” he said.

“Sunday was definitely a shame because it’s a big, big home event for KTM here.

“I’ve observed this race with the support and the orange flags from the other side before, but it’s different when you’re on this side of the fence. 

“You could only imagine what it would be like to win at home for KTM … it’d be pretty special, that’s for sure.”

MotoGP returns at Catalunya on September 1-3.

Main image: Philip Platzer / Red Bull Ring / Red Bull Content Pool

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