MotoGP Portimao: ‘I’m here to race and that’s it’ - Miller

Jack Miller heads into the Portuguese GP refreshed and assured after the Ducati Lenovo rider dispatched a dominant performance at COTA.

Having led for the majority of the Texan race, Miller met the flag in third, behind Suzuki’s Alex Rins and MotoGP Championship leader Enea Bastianini. While the 27-year-old sits seventh in the standings, 30 points adrift of the Gresini man, the 2022 season remains tight as the paddock returns to more familiar territory with the first back-to-back on European soil.

“It’s nice to come into the European season with the ball rolling a little bit,” Miller said on Thursday. “Bumpy start as it generally is for me into the championship but got the ball rolling now, and we got some good tracks coming up.

“Starting to really gel with my bike, understanding it more and more every weekend - what we need to do, where we need to work, that kind of thing but all in all just happy going through the motions.”

With the first podium of the year now under his belt, the Australian is looking forward to building on the momentum this time out.

“Try and do the same thing we did in Austin which was just put together a solid weekend,” he said of his Portimao plans. “I think that gives you the confidence, it brings you the confidence for Sunday’s race. We ran out of steam a little bit there but it was definitely a building block on what we need to do for the races coming forward.”

Having stood on the podium at two of the past three Algarve outings, Miller seems to have an affinity with the rollercoaster.

“I think the fact that it’s so different to any other track we got on the calendar that makes it nice,” he admitted. “You’ve got to negotiate the elevation, you’ve got corners off camber, on camber. It throws a