Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) has had eight top ten results in a row running up to Mugello, and the Queenslander’s pace stayed very much put on Day 1 in Italy as he took P5 overall. And, he explains, that’s despite a fair bit of movement from the rear tyre when he was pushing for a fast lap.
“I don’t know if we had a bad soft tyre at the end of FP2,” the Australian mused at the end of play, “but I had a lot of pumping and movement. Still, I was able to improve my time. I’ve been really surprised at my pace throughout the day. Even in the morning with nearly 18 laps on the tyre, to do the laptime we did was pretty good and the momentum continued in the arvo.”
That’s Australian for ‘in the afternoon’. And that it did, with Miller only 0.038 off being the top Independent Team rider on the first day, an honour taken by Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) just ahead of him. But for Saturday, Miller thinks there’s more in his pocket with an engine change.
“It was a really positive day for us, and on an old engine – you can see it was slow because we were third last in the speed trap! So I‘m looking forward to some fresh legs tomorrow hopefully, and it should give us a bit of time for free.”
See if Miller can keep his impressive Q2 form going in FP3 at 9:55 (GMT +2), before qualifying begins from 14:10.