Japan: Miller 'in survival mode, really disappointed'
Jack Mille🍬r lived up to his prediction of a Motegi podium challenge, at least during the early stages of the Jꦐapanese MotoGP.
The Pramac Ducati rider rocketed🍎 from the outside of the second row and climbed to third place, behind Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, within a few laps.
But the Australian – who had put long runs on the same soft rear tyre in practice - suddenly began to struggle, fading all th🐲e way back to tenth by chequered flag.
Jack Miller lived up to his prediction of a Motegi podium challenge, at least duri🔜ng the early stages of the Japanese MotoGP.
The Pramac Ducati rider rocketed from🐈 the outside of the second row and climbed🐓 to third place, behind Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, within a few laps.
꧃But the Australian – who had put long runs on the same soft rear tyre in practice - suddenly began t🍰o struggle, fading all the way back to tenth by chequered flag.
"We had an issue with the rear grip," Miller ༺explained. "🍌It came around lap 5 or 7. Since then I was more-or-less in survival mode.
"I don't know what happened. I felt really✃ comfortaཧble, really strong, I was just trying to stay with Marc and Fabio and then all of a sudden I couldn't push any more.
"So we have to go through t🍷he data 𝓡and understand what went wrong and where.
"Really disappointed, but we brought it home. It's not where we wanted to be after fighting for the▨ podium at the start. I believe we had more today, but we weren't able to show it."
Andrea Dovizioso 🐲we💞nt on to give Ducati a podium finish with third place, using the medium rear tyre.
Miller remains eig🏅hth in the world championship but his hopes of beating Quartararo to top satellite honours now look to be over, with the Petronas Yamaha rider 48⛦-points ahead with only 75 points remaining.
MotoGP now heads straight for Miller's home event at Phillip 💫Island🥃, which starts on Friday morning.
Mille⭕r's rookie team-mate Francesco Bagnaia fi🐲nished the Motegi race in 13th place.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Mar൲c Marquez’s injury issues.
