MotoGP 2023 – Round Two – Argentina

Jack Miller

“Coming through from 16th to sixth here in Argentina on a day like this with the rain and the spray, you can’t be too disappointed with that. It was a day when you can lose a lot, so to leave here with some decent points and with a lot more knowledge makes it a good one, all in all. It would have been a lot nicer to start up the front when it’s wet like that though – for one, you’re not absolutely drenched by the end of the back straight on the first lap!

“When I got through the midfield and got to the pointier end of the group, I put in a couple of decent laps and the times were really fast, and I thought ‘we’re on here, it could be decent one’. I could see myself reeling in the boys in front. But then I just hit a massive wall – I don’t know if I cooked the rear tyre or it just got a little bit hot on the edge, but immediately it was like night and day on the next lap. I tried a whole heap of combinations with the (engine) map and found something with less power and less traction control, having the bike a bit more ‘free’. So we definitely left something on the table set-up wise.

“I definitely wanted more than sixth after how well Portimao went, but we had an unfortunate qualifying and I had to salvage something from there. We’ll definitely have to improve that in Austin, but we know how to do that. Qualifying just let us down, but we saved tyres, we were being too conservative and we shouldn’t have been – everyone else wasn’t. That cost us, and then came the rain in Q1 … I mean, it wasn’t ideal. But we’ll learn from that – I can do things better, and the boys can do things better as well. It’s just a matter of learning each other, and I feel we’re well on our way.

“I was happy enough finishing 10th in the sprint, even though finishing a second outside the points was pretty frustrating. Moving forward from 16th was good at least, and in the end I wouldn’t have minded some more laps, that’s probably the first time in my career that I’ve prayed for more laps than there was! (Teammate) Brad (Binder) was unreal though, winning the sprint … he qualified one position in front of me on the grid and made it work, that’s for certain. Couldn’t believe it! He definitely rode a mega race.

“The sprints and in terms of who they suit – they suit me to a degree, but there’s plenty of riders who can turn it on for half a race distance so I don’t think it’s some big advantage for me. I reckon the people it suits most are the fans at home, because they’ve got two absolutely awesome shows so far. I thought the Portugal sprint was awesome to watch – I watched it back. I was glued to the screen, even though I knew what was going to happen because I was in it! As the season progresses, I think they’ll get even better.

“With the way Portugal ended up and a few of the boys – Marc (Marquez), Miguel (Oliveira), Enea (Bastianini) and Pol (Espargaro) not riding here – there was a lot of crap, basically, spoken about what went on in Portimao. I think the weekend there was a smash hit, the sprint race was a smash hit. Sure, it was unfortunate that four guys got injured but unfortunately for Pol, his was a crash that could have happened at any weekend. No-one wants to see what happened with Marc and Miguel, I think that was avoidable … but we can’t blame that and the other incidents on the sprint race. I’m sure whether it’s a sprint or the Grand Prix, that sort of thing is going to happen at the first round because everyone’s been off the bike for nearly four months, they’re all eager to prove something in the first round. It’s what happens.

“Austin’s next and I always look forward to being in America – I’ve had a front row and a couple of podiums there, so getting back on the box with the new bike is definitely the priority when we get there in a couple of weeks.”

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Source: MCNews.com.au