Jack Miller is delighted with his preparations for the new MotoGP season after a strong showing on home soil at Phillip Island. The Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider featured in the top ten on all three days and says he is finally getting to grips with a bike that has proven troublesome in recent times.
Miller ended the week 0.809s off the ultimate pace in ninth position and is now looking forward to making improvements at the final test in Qatar to close the gap still further.
“These three days here at Phillip Island have been really positive for us. For the first time in a long time I feel like I’m in charge of the bike and not the other way round. We came here to confirm what we learnt in Sepang and we’ve done that, so we know our base set up works at two very different tracks and I’m confident it will be the same in Qatar at the final test. There is still some work to do before we get the season underway next month, but we’ve done much of the hard work and it’s now just a case of refining what we have to find the final few tenths we’re missing. Overall I’m pleased with our preparations for the new season and looking forward to the final test in Qatar next month.”
Miller was the team’s sole representative in Australia due to the injury to Tito Rabat and team principal Michael Bartholemy was impressed by the performance of his young charge.
“This was another very positive test for Jack and one that will further boost his confidence as the start of the season approaches. He proved once again in Phillip Island that this year he’s both fast and consistent and the fact that he completed three days of testing with no mistakes and without a single crash shows that he still has something in his pocket if it’s needed. A good job by Jack and a good job by the team and one that I’m confident will be repeated during the third and final test in Qatar, where we hope Tito will be back in action too.”
