Miller “felt victory was on offer” before his COTA MotoGP race crash

The Australian made a good start from 10th on the grid in Sunday’s grand prix and got up to third on the opening lap behind Francesco Bagnaia and eventual winner Alex Rins.

As he tipped into Turn 7 on lap seven of 20, Miller slid out of the race, but feels the tyre conservation of the KTM would have put him into victory contention later in the race.

“I felt honestly the victory was on offer today, because the way this thing holds the rear tyre… those other boys, especially through the long right-hander were pulling away from me in the beginning of the race,” he said.

“They were quite on and off the gas through there and pushing the rear a lot, whereas I was conservative, keeping a partial throttle and tighter line and waiting to the end to [open the gas] into the next corner.

“They were gapping me a bit there at the beginning, and I could see.

“Then after five laps their system wasn’t working anymore and I was starting to gain back in that sector.

“So, I really felt we were on for a good shout. We’re all going to say that aren’t we when we are laying in the gravel trap after several lap.”

Jack Miller, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Explaining why he crashed, Miller said: “The bike was working really decent. The one sector of the track I was feeling comfortable in was sector two, I was able to reel in each lap there and I was just sort of settled in, just swapped the [engine] maps over two laps prior, felt pretty comfortable, felt those other boys were starting to come back to me a little bit, their pace was starting to ride a little bit, the tyres were getting to that point where we needed to nurse them.

“The hot laps had kind of come out. I went into that corner, checking the data I did hold Turn 6 tighter and as I changed [direction for Turn 7] I paused on the change because I was coming from a bit wider and it loaded the rear and when she’s unloaded the rear it put a little bit more on the front.

“So, that could have had something to do with it. It’s a bee’s dick, but that’s all it takes around here.

“Once it tucked, I held it on the elbow for a bit but there was no saving it.”