MotoGP Mandalika: Miller praying for no repeat of electronics mess

Ducati’s Jack Miller is praying that the electronics gremlins which ejected him from the MotoGP season opener will not return at this weekend’s inaugural Mandalika race.

The likeable Aussie had to retire from the Losail race on lap seven when his Desmosedici ‘got lost’ on the desert track and began behaving in a most peculiar way.

“From the get-go the bike wasn’t fantastic,” Miller said. There was something missing in the electronics, the bike was quite lost, let’s say.

“I had 100 per cent power in some very, very strange points on the track and then coming onto the front straight I had no power, I had to go to fourth gear pretty much directly. At the last corner everyone was passing me.

“I honestly thought I was going to get run up the arse coming out of the last corner because I was that slow. The sectors were all off, so electronics issue. I tried everything I could, swapped from map A, B, C, system on, system off.

“I tried my best, but at one point – especially over the back part of the track – kept firing me off.

“I’d be between corners and it would give me a massive burst of throttle. Of course, my grip’s open, but I was not expecting that.

“Then also the fear of getting run up the arse every time I come out of the last corner, because I was on the racing line and not accelerating. It was just better to pull in. Not a great day.

“The bike was foreign, very foreign. It is what it is, we know the issue, we know what happened. It’s unfortunate but hopefully it won’t happen again.”

A similar thing happened to Nicky Hayden at Estoril in 2012 when his GP12 fell out of phase with his actual track position.