MotoGP Misano: ‘Fantastic pole after four years’ - Miller

Ducati Lenovo’s Jack Miller was back on MotoGP pole for the first time in four years at Misano World Circuit on Saturday.

The wet weather master was in his element as the rain continued to threaten at the Italian track but with conditions remaining almost dry, Miller maintained his confident form showcased across the past two days.

Having led the way in FP3, and remained consistently inside the top three on Friday, Miller was quick from the off as qualifying fired up. Hitting the top on four separate occasions as conditions improved, the Australian’s 1’31.899 penultimate effort held off teammate Pecco Bagnaia by a mere 0.015s to finally claim a Tissot watch for himself while wearing red.

“The pit lane was completely soaked,” Miller explained on Saturday afternoon’s trick conditions. “The majority of us all went out on the wets just to try, and if it was gonna rain more, try and do a lap at least in the drier conditions. But once I rolled out of pit lane, I saw that the black asphalt, the new asphalt of the track was completely dry, bone dry.

“A sense of urgency kind of kicked in. I’m like ‘Alright, I need to get back and get on the other bike as soon as possible,’ just while that window’s open because you don’t know how long it’s going to be there. I was able to get back, get a few decent laps in.

“I just watched the session back and everyone was just improving one after the other!

“I ran out at turn 11, took it back a step and I was like ‘have one crack at it’ and I did. It was enough to pull me through. I was getting a bit nervous there on the next lap because I messed it up. I was watching the TVs the whole way around the track and everyone was pushing pretty hard but that final sector I’ve been pretty strong through