On the opening day of Round 2, though, he ended up second at 0.118s off the very best pace in Practice, set by the Ducati Team’s Enea Bastianini, and is therefore already through to Qualifying 2.
Earlier in the day, Miller was fourth and Red Bull KTM team-mate Brad Binder third in Free Practice 1, a session which began on a very dusty Portimao circuit after heavy overnight rain.
“The conditions were not what we expected, with the rain overnight,” he said.
“The bike is working well, as it has done all year. It’s nice to show up and have a crack.
“There are areas we can improve on the hard tyre and the soft.
“It’s nice to be through to Q2, that’s the first job done.
“The way I felt this afternoon, when I did the lap times on hard tyres, I was happy.”
Miller says the KTM RC16 does not suit Portimao as well as it used to, but that it is still better than other bikes on the ‘rollercoaster’ venue.
“The old KTM maybe was more manoeuvrable,” he explained.
“All the bikes now have gone to the longer wheel base.
“But, our bike does suit it. From Turn 1 to 3, you can pitch the thing sideways and get it to stop on a dimepiece, and follow the white line around the inside, which used to be pretty hard on the Ducati.
“So it’s a track that suits our bike.
“Qatar suited our bike too. I didn’t feel terrible. I just didn’t put it together.”
Having failed to trouble the scorers at Lusail, Miller thinks a podium is within reach this weekend.
“I think it every week otherwise I wouldn’t show up,” he declared.
“But obviously it seems more realistic this week.
“I felt extremely shit after the race in Qatar but that’s a different story.
“We have a great package. We just need the stars to align and we can do a great job.”
Miller’s late effort in Practice pushed Marc Marquez down to third, although the Gresini Ducati rider is thus through to Q2 also.
The rest of the top 10 was Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), Binder, Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing), Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Team), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha), and Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha).
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