Alma Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller ended Day 1 at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana in P2 on the combined timesheets, thanks to his FP1 pace.
“This morning was really good and I’m happy with the performance,” reflected the Australian, who ended the opening day in Valencia just 0.104 behind 2018 World Champion Marc Marquez. Miller did, however, crash at the end of FP1 – a small tip off when pushing too hard in the wet conditions didn’t dampen his day too much though:
“I got a little bit carried away on my last flying lap and threw it away, but apart from that it’s been a good day,” continued the Ducati rider. “I didn’t want to change the tyre this afternoon, so when I went out on the used one, it had been spun a little bit too much and the grooves weren’t quite deep enough, so I went out in the rain and there was a lot of aquaplaning. I just wobbled around. We made some adjustments from the morning, went out to check those and they were positive, so we feel good for today and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
The wet weather looks like its here to stay for the weekend if the forecasts are to be believed. Miller – like most other riders – would prefer a dry qualifying on Saturday, but his pace in the wet looks strong. The 23-year-old is hoping conditions aren’t as wet as what we saw on Friday, with Turn 12 a particularly treacherous point around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
“Dry qualifying is always a lot better, I enjoy them more and you get to push to 100%, but we’ll take what the weather gives to us and hopefully it’ll be a little bit dryer, not so much aquaplaning. It seems like at Turn 12 there’s a lot standing water there and it’s caught a lot of people out.”
Can Miller stick his GP17 on the front row – or even pole – for the fourth time this season? His Argentina pole came in tricky conditions and a repeat could well be on the cards…