Jack Mil🌜ler secured a provisional place in Qualifying 2 for the Japanese MotoGP, despite falling on an even bett🍎er lap at the end of Friday afternoon practice.

The Pramac Ducati rider, fighting to get back on terms with Fabio Quartararo for top satellite honours in the world championship, lost the front of this machine into Turn 9 of the Moteღgi circuit.

The Australian's frustration was clear as꧅ h🐻e came to a halt in the gravel, later revealing he'd made a repeat of the mistake that took him out of last year's race.

"I'd just done my best lap time and was on course to do anothe🐻r personal best, so it was a shame we didn’t finish 𒉰the lap," Miller said. "But a simple mistake, I know exactly what I did because I did it last year in the race at that exact same corner!

"Just a little wider than normal turning in, there's a bump there and I hit it at full angle, full brakes and the bike's unloaꦦded. I'll try not to do that again over the weekend, but all in all a good first day."

Millꦕer's previous flying lap put him seventh on the timesheets, 0.8s from day one leader Quartararo. But it was largely mission accomplished for the #43, whose priority alongside a top ten place was to find a ♒hasty race set-up in view of the forecast rain.

"The pace was good, we did a lot of laps on the soft🃏 tyre especially, just trying to understand for the race because it looks like we're going to have wet conditions tomorrow," Miller explained.

"So I think today was really important just to work solely on our race pace because it look💝s like it'll be a dry Sun🅺day, but wet Saturday.

"We needed as much information as we could get today and I think we did so, but also trying to stay inside the [top ten] Qualifying 2 cut-off♑ because that's also important for tomorrow."

Pending the outcomeꩵ of talks with the team, Miller feels his race-tyre se🐼lection is already clear.

"I felt quite goo💎d with the soft, and I used it this morning to this afternoon. Probably we'll do some more understanding and look at the data, but I think mediu꧅m [front] - soft [rear] looks pretty clear for the race option."

Andrea Dovizioso was the top Ducati in fourth place on Friday, with factory team-ma꧒te Danilo Petrucci in eighth. Miller's rookie team-mate Francesco Bagnaia was 14th.