MotoGP Buriram: Miller’s title hopes ‘a long shot but if it’s meant to be…’

Ducati Lenovo’s Jack Miller may not have scored a successive victory in the Thai Grand Prix but second in Sunday’s challenging conditions demonstrated his skill once again.

Miller was one of the odds-on favourites when the heavens opened on Sunday morning. A torrential downpour aborting the Moto2 action before delaying the start to the premier class race by an hour.

Launching from seventh, the Australian was quickly on the tail of his teammate before dispatching both Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin to take charge of proceedings by lap four. It was a position he held for ten laps before Miguel Oliveira finally overcame the GP22 at the final corner.

“When we come into these kind of unknowns - of not being in the wet and then going out in the wet - I already know the guys that are going to be really fast,” Miller acknowledged. “Generally I know I’ll be pretty quick, I know Miguel will be really quick and I know [Johann] Zarco will be really quick. We’re kind of the three that can sort of adapt.

“To be honest I was a bit nervous about Petrux today, thought he might come through from the back end!” he joked of Danilo Petrucci’s return to the class as Suzuki stand-in.

“It was a good day,” he continued. “Another positive race, another positive weekend in general. The bike was working well all round, we were putting in the laps throughout all sessions and able to keep improving. Yesterday I was, again like in Motegi, a little bit disappointed of the quali, having that issue but nonetheless we were able to bounce back to a decent result today and it was a really good race.

“A nice clean battle there with Miguel. I pushed to the bitter end to try and keep him honest, stay within striking distance and yeah, made a slight mistake