MotoGP Sepang Test: Miller ‘happy with new engine, crash was nothing’

Jack Miller’s conclusion to the Sepang MotoGP test was less than ideal after the Australian crashed his Red Bull KTM on Sunday morning.

While Miller brushed the fall off as ‘nothing’, his switch from Ducati to KTM for the 2023 season has proved slow progress across pre-season testing. A 1’58.901 best lap left him 18th in the combined times - a tenth behind teammate Brad Binder, in 14th, with Pol Espargaro a mere 0.015s ahead of the South African on the GasGas branded RC16.

“The crash was nothing,” Miller confirmed on Sunday lunchtime after attempting a time attack on soft Michelin tyres. “I picked the bike back up and was able to do a couple more laps, just as I picked the gas up at turn one she went away from me.

“It’s not been the easiest of mornings but we’re getting through it.

“The bike seems to be at a point now and we are just changing a couple of things - just to really try and get myself comfortable on it,” he continued before heading back out for the final afternoon. “I’ve kind of hit a wall, I guess you could say, in terms of my setup. So just playing around with the geometry a little bit.

“Just before we stopped for lunch, we made an improvement on the used tyre, so the main focus is basically getting that comfortable before we finish this test out. We’re making another step now, trying to see if it’s too far or not. After that, just going through this small fine tuning details before we head to Portimao.

“I had the new engine yesterday,” he said on steps made with the RC16. “Was very happy with that but yeah, back on the old one today. In terms of chassis and so on, who knows. I’m getting more and more comfortable with it and understanding what I need from the bike, where we need to improve just to get