Two sides of the same coin. Jack Miller and Jorge Martin experienced a totally opposite Saturday, with the Australian who, after the excellent FP3 in which he set the best time, in qualifying he had to settle for 10th place 1” away from the pole of his teammate Pecco Bagnaia, not hiding a certain bad mood in the garage after qualifying.
"I had a hard tyre on in FP4 and did a lap two tenths off what I could do in qualifying. And I did a 2’2.9 in FP3 . So I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t through a lack of trying, I can tell you that” said the Australian who explained an afternoon in which everything went wrong on his side of the garage. Miller also upped the ante by talking about the problem with the tyres he had also today.
"It’s happened a few times and I can tell you one thing: I am getting f**king sick of it. But anyway, it is what it is. We go forwards and hopefully it doesn’t happen tomorrow. I did my best, I stayed calm, I tried to do my job, I worked for the race, with everything that is under my control I try to do as best I can ”.
Starting from 10th position, Miller will have to think about a comeback race, knowing at least that in the first sector he was the fastest: "It won't be the easiest of races, but if you look at what Dovi did a couple of years ago here, he was out of Q2 and managed to finish fourth, it is true that there were also some crashes that day. For my part, I feel I have good speed, good potential, I feel good on the bike, I will need to make a clean start and that will certainly be the most difficult thing, also considering what Turn 1 is like here, and for the rest we will try to do our best to catch those in front as soon as possible and stay with them ”.
Regarding the tyres, Miller also talked about the soft that gave him problems in qualifying: "Even though I want to, it is not something we will comment on at this point. It’s just that I wasn’t able to do what I know I'm able to do. I will just try and do the best I can and whatever is in my control I will do it. But we cannot control everything. That’s the shame about it. The team has done a fantastic job all weekend, as they have done every weekend. I’m sorry for them but tomorrow is when they hand out the points. We’ll push to the maximum. It's made the work harder. My championship rivals are in front of me with Zarco and Mir and they are definitely the ones we need to get in front of.”
Miller excluded the soft option for the race: "I don't think it will be that one, I used it in the race in 2019, I tested it in FP3. It’s not going to be the easiest race but if you look at what Dovi did a couple of years ago here when we raced last, he was able to come through to fourth. There were a few crashes that day but I have good speed, I have good potential and I feel good on the bike. and stay there. I tried both combinations, in FP4 I had the medium at the beginning but it seems to drop quickly, in the end I tried the hard with which I did the best times and I felt good, we will have to do more laps to understand which tyre to use between the two and we will also have to see how the conditions are, but with the hard I feel good at the moment ”.
Jack also clarified what his strategy was in qualifying: “I did two runs of the same length, I got the maximum in both the first and the second run. In the second, the time ran out, I wanted to do another lap, but after that, as soon as I got on the track, I pushed hard and it didn't work, with the first tyre it didn't go well. That was the best, all that I could do. Didn't both tyres go well? You said it, not me ”.
The mood of Jorge Martin, now a certainty at the top of the standings, was different: Martinator landed an excellent fourth time, a 2’03.278, the result of a step back on the setup before qualifying as he himself explained: "Today I we struggled, we tried different setups to try to absorb the bumps and have more stability but we didn't find anything useful, so for qualifying we went back to our standard setup and we are back to being as fast as ever. I would like to have the chance to do FP4 again, for sure we would be better. For tomorrow we will take a step, certainly not for the podium or for a top-5 but at least to finish in sixth or seventh place - said the Spaniard - It will be a physical and very long race for sure, we will have to be careful at the beginning to get to the finish well, many of us will suffer in the final stages, including myself, it will be important to manage everything. Physically I am better than expected, I have no pain, I spoke to Dr. Charte and we will look for a solution for tomorrow. I'm not at 100% but for tomorrow I'll try to be at my best ”.
Asked about the Safety Commission meeting that took place yesterday, Martin revealed that some of the riders did not want to do the race and that a resurfacing of the track for 2022 was requested: "Two or three riders did not want to race on Sunday, but this for me was not a possibility, we are MotoGP riders and we cannot stop the weekend. The thing came out but we didn't discuss it. Not only was the resurfacing requested, it was also asked to fix all the ground from turn 2 to turn 10. If they don't, we won't be back", he pointed out. Regarding the possibility of shortening the race Miller added: "We are in MotoGP, we have to put on a show, nothing changes between 15 and 20 laps because once we reach lap 12 we have to try to reach the finish line keeping the pace, not much would have changed".
The Spaniard then talked about his heartbeat, which during qualifying was close to 200 beats per minute (the maximum reached was 199 bpm): "For me this is normal, this track is perhaps a bit more difficult. but that's part of my riding style, I'm always full throttle. It may be that at rest it has 36-40 beats, but I am able to reach high beats but it is normal ”.
Regarding the mistake at Misano, Martin assured that it will not affect him for tomorrow: “In the end I learned, if you don't learn from your mistakes it is pointless. It is clear that I made a mistake and I will not do it again tomorrow, that's for sure. I will try to be more relaxed in the first laps, this is a year where I have to gain experience and if I don't finish the races I can't do that. For the start, we will have to look for a good line to brake hard and we will have to hope that there will be no accidents ”.