MotoGP Mandalika: Miller ‘had a lot of fun, tyre stability feels good’

Jack Miller was full of praise for both track and tyres after the opening day of MotoGP action at the Mandalika Circuit on Friday.

The Ducati Lenovo rider finished sixth in the combined practice times, three-and-a-half-tenths off Fabio Quartararo’s leading lap, and was relishing being back on Lombok ahead of Sunday’s Indonesian GP.

“I had a lot of fun today,” Miller confirmed on Friday evening. “They’ve done an amazing job first of all to get the track in the condition that it is in already. For sure the new asphalt has made the track a lot better in the first sector. But not only that, the rest of the track was in really good condition.

“It was still a little bit dusty this morning but that’s to be expected. I don’t care how much you broom and brush the track. I mean, nothing cleans the track like motorcycles racing on it. They’ve done a fantastic job.

“I had a lot of fun, the pace is there. I did a long run in FP2, felt pretty good. Trying the softer tyre, because the tyre is new here, and just trying to understand how that will behave after some laps on it,” he said of the new Michelin allocation but would not be drawn into discussion about the disappearance of the Desmosedici’s front-ride-height device. “I don’t really want to comment too much. We are trying devices, we are testing stuff and yeah, not much to say.”

Returning to Michelin’s new rear casing, the Australian continued: “I know this tyre from the first test we did in Spielberg, the technology at least, but it’s working really, really well. I enjoyed it straightaway. There’s a lot of stability in this tyre. I can’t fault it whatsoever.

“As I said, the soft was maybe a little bit too soft just in the temperatures, because it was so hot. The ground