Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller leads the Desmosedici machines into battle at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas after earning a P4 in the second part of qualifying.
Miller has been the number one Ducati rider for most of the weekend but after a strange day, with FP3 being cancelled due to weather conditions, Miller found the going tough in FP4 and qualifying with the wind causing issues for the riders.
“The weather was all over the place. Really windy, you can’t believe the amount of wind,” explained Miller. “It’s really inconsistent too because it comes in gusts, braking off the back straight and into the first corner, you weren’t really sure how much wind you had to help you. So sometimes you’d go on the brakes and it would be far too early and sometimes you’d go for the brakes and you’re way too late to pull it up. I near on jumped off the end of the world up there at Turn 1 I braked that late, it just wasn’t ready for us. But yeah really happy to get a dry qualifying, I think that really helped for us to be where we are.”
‘Jackass’ is looking forward to the race tomorrow, but tyre choice for the Pramac Racing man is still yet to be confirmed. “Yeah, looking forward to the race tomorrow, we’ve had good pace all weekend, still unsure on the tyres. It was a shame we had that half wet half dry, and no FP3 and that FP4 so I’m interested to see in morning warm up if we’re able to get out and get some laps in. I’m interested in the soft/soft compound, see how it goes, tyre wear hasn’t really been an issue here so really interested to see how that plays out.”
It wasn’t the day the factory Ducati garage would have been hoping for. A cancelled FP3 meant both Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) and teammate Danilo Petrucci had to venture through Q1 if they were to have a shot at pole, with both failing to get a top 10 in FP2. The latter was able to displace Dovi in the final few seconds to go through into Q2, eventually finishing P8 in the second session. This left the man currently second in the Championship starting from 13th and with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) on pole, what can Dovi do to salvage as many points as he can in Austin?
Will it be Miller who takes top Ducati honours on Sunday in Texas? Find out when the lights go out at 14:00 local time (GMT-5).