"The real stuff starts now" - Interview: Ducati's Jack Miller talks MotoGP 2022

The first European race of the MotoGP season takes place this weekend with the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao.

A track famed for its undulations and fast corners, it’s the latest round of a season that is proving every bit as gripping and unpredictable as fans would have hoped.

For Jack Miller, meanwhile, it’s a chance to try and achieve another podium place to build on his top-three finish in Austin last time out, and he admits he feels as though he has made a step forward on the back of that result.

“[The season’s] been up and down. Like a roller coaster, much like this track where we are now,” Miller tells Give Me Sport.

“I felt like we made a step forward last week. Not only because of the podium and all that but also just the way we worked throughout the weekend.

“I think we found our direction, let’s say, we were sort of p***ing in the wind up until that point, and we were able to sort of locate what we needed to work on and also find some solutions.

“So I think it was a big, big weekend for us last weekend, in more ways than one. And I feel good now. We’re coming to a new track and coming to the European part of the season.

“I think the real stuff sort of starts now.”

The championship is wide open, too. Enea Bastianini has won two of the races so far but the fight has only just begun, and Miller, when asked about the opportunities that could present, thinks that that competition is a good thing:

“Definitely. With Enea winning two races, he’s sort of stepped up a fair bit. But the rest of us have, you know, been very hot and cold. So I think it’s all definitely there to play for still. And I think that trend will continue on throughout the season, because I think, in this championship, it’s going to be hard