Fastest in pre-season testing, and starting fifth on the grid, Jack Miller was expected to be in the thick of the podium fight on his Factory 🐠Ducati team debut in Sunday's Qatar Mot꧙oGP season-opener.

Initially, all went to plan, the GP21 riders uꦫsing Ducati's new double hol♛eshot device (front and rear) to devastating effect as they filled the top four places by turn 1.

But by lap 8 Miller had started to decline and although the Australian briefly retaliated at th෴e halfway stage, he slipped steadily d🌜own the order over the last nine laps.

"We had a really good start and was able to push as I liked, not too hard in the beginning, but when Viñales came past [lap 8] I thought now it's time to stꦬart upping the pace and I was able to do th🌸e low ‘55s," Miller said.

"Bu🦩t then, bang, I hit a wall and started losing the rear o𒊎n the mid-corner.

"I had been trying to manage the tyre in the beginning and it didn🎃’t really work, so we have to understand what I am doing and the others are doing.

"Like I said, I felt extremely comfortable there in third position after Zarco passed me. I said 𓆉‘ok, let these boys go’ and I felt I was being very calm and careful with the tyres.

"It was mainly the right side and off gas is wher🉐e I had the biggest issue.

"I had a big moment as soon as I started to follow Vinales in Tℱurn 5, off-gas. I was using rear brake on angle and lo﷽st the rear and when that happens it is quite difficult to carry the corner speed.

📖"We need to study and understand 🐷;what I need to change.

"For sure, we don’t want to be in 9th position but those were 🍌the cardꦯs we were dealt today. 9 points is better than 0 but we need to analyse and work on it.

"For sure these shit little crashes in the afternoon sessions affect my confidence a 🃏little bit, but in terms of riding this evening I felt comfortable and confident.

"I felt like I had the pace to fight for victory… For at least half of the race. We need to find 7 second over the next 7 days. It’s as simღple as that."

The headwind along the home straight seemed to negate some of Ducati's record-breaking top speed, but Miller denied they needed to save more fuel than🅰 expected.

"The wind wasn’t ideal but it’s the same for everyone. It definitely wasnไ’t as bad as the a๊fternoon. It still wasn’t pleasant," Miller said.

"But🐽 the torque maps and that were like normal, as we expected. Qatar is quite a user-friendly track lets say because you have the big straight but the rest - apar♌t from a couple of places like 10, 11 - you are pretty much playing with the gas.

"It’s not like Austria wh𓆏ere you are completely flat out. It didn’t 🃏really affect us too much in terms of fuel or anything like that."

Ducati went on to finish second and third behind Yamaha's Maverick Vinales in Sunday's race🌌, after both Johann Zarco and Miller's team-mate Francesco Bagnaia narrowꦰly beat the Suzuki of Joan Mir on the run to the line.

"I’ve said all along that they [Suzu𒈔ki] were sandbagging in the sessions a♚nd not really showing their full potential," Miller said of the reigning world champions.

"And today, as we’ve seen many times in the past, they were able to be very gentle with their tyre🦩s and be very strong at the end. Mir would have been on the podium today if it wasn’t for that drag race to the finish line.

"Maverick rode an excellent race, butಞ the pace was not ‘54s or anything like that. It was '55s and I could not run that at the end."