But his race ended in brutal fashion when the factory Ducati rider was torpedoed at Turn 4, renamed in his honour just a day earlier, by a wayward ܫAlex Marquez, on lap 9 of 27.

“Not the day I had planned, that's for certain,” said Miller, whose slim title hopes were also left in the gravel “But it is what it♍ is, that’s the cards we were dealt.

“I felt mega, got a decent start and plugged my way through. I threw it at the inside of Pecco a couple times, but understood he wanted to lead the way. I said, ‘alright, fourth is good enough, just swap the map’ and I was haꦫppy to hold station there and let the race come to me.

“Then Bezzecchi came up underneath me. I thought ‘alright, I'll have to get him back’ and I was sort of aiming at Turn 10 again. Buꦑt I di🌄dn't get that far.

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“I got🐻 to T4, Miller Corner🍒. I was mid-corner, just about to release the brakes and get on the gas and got a front wheel to the middle of my spine.

“There was not much I could really do about that.

“One minute 🐻I'm looking at the back end of Bezzecchi’s bike and the next minute I was seeing stars.

“I got pretty winded, feel alr🌳ight, just a bit bruised and whatnot.”

The fact it happened🌠 at Miller Corner added to "the irony of it all. But it is what it is. We'lꦜl come back next year even stronger."

Alex Marquez: ‘Sorry to Jack, that mistake was a bit too much’

Having lost control of his LCR Honda under braking, Marquez couldn’t avoid the Australian ahead. The Spaniard, who later received a long lap pena🐽lty for next weekend’s Malaysiꦛan MotoGP, was quick to apologise.

“I’m sorry for Jack at his home GP. I understand why he is angry and he has every reason to be,” Marquez said. “I just made a mistake. I was rea⛄lly careful on that corner because I know it is easy to make a mistake and that lap I started to attack a little bit because everybody was passing me at that point.

“I went inꦯ a bit more, had some locking and caught some speed. Sorry to him and his team. We lose a good opportunity today to make a good race and a good result but life is like this, it’s racing. Everybody can make a mistake, but that mistake was a bit too much.”

Marquez ran straight over to Miller, a former Moto3 title rival, to check on his condition be🥂fore paying a viꦓsit to the Ducati pit box.

“It’s normal, he was angry! Later when I went to the box I saw Tardozzi and all them and they said ‘no worries, it can happen’. Just thi🐼s🍌. He did it also in the past, so it can happen to anybody. But it is not an excuse, I made a huge mistake today.”

Miller: ‘People travelled far and wide, you feel you let them down’

As💞 he walked away from the accident, Miller’s first port of call was tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚo his family and friends gathered trackside.

“Once I got my breath back, I wan𝕴dered over to the oldies and gave them a hug and said s⭕orry,” Miller said.

“A lot of p♕eople have travelled - not only m🐻y family, but a lot of families all the way around this joint - have travelled far and wide to see an Aussie do good. And you kind of feel like you let them down.

“So it is devastatin🎉g, but it is part of it. 🃏That's part of motorcycle racing.”

Once the adrenaline had gone down, the 27-year-old said he had no hard fee✃lings towards Marquez.

“What's there to have hard feelings about? At the end of the day, we’re all out there trying to do our best. I understand he might have got a little bit carried away trying to get past Marini, but you know we've all made mist🧸akes.

“I think he's as devastated as I am to not be finishing t♌he race but don’t get me wrong, it’s my first home grand prix after three ye𒐪ars and definitely not the way I wanted to finish it.”

But it didn’t diminish the support Miller has received this weekend: “It's been fantastic. It's awesome to see motorcycling in such good health back here. I love this sport and it's amazing 🔥t꧅o see everyone enjoying it as much as I do.”

Miller sets sights on third in the world championship

With his title chances now officially over, Miller will go into the final two rounds of the season 12-points behind Enea Bastianini anꦍd 27 from third in the standings Aleix Esparౠgaro.

“It could have been a lot better than it was [in terms of the points] with Fabio crashing and Aleix having a tough one,” Miller said. “But Aleix and Bastianini didn't get too many points tod✱ay.

“So my main꧋ goal is to try and beat those guys or try to do the best I can to get as close to them as possible. At the end of the day, tha🍌t's all we can do.

“I’m happy for the team. They're now leading the World championship [with Bagnaia] after they were 91 points down. I feel l♉ike the teams’ championship will be wrapped up soon. So it's been a good year nonetheless.”

Free practice for the Malaysian Gr🧸and Prix at Sepang starts🍷 on Friday.