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Jack Miller is confident his Red Bull KTM squad are heading in the right direction after topping the times in the opening day of practice at Phillip Island.
The Townsville rider proved to be the class of the Moto3 field at the 4.4km circuit as he posted the fastest time in today’s scheduled two free practice sessions.
Miller’s personal best effort of 1.37.033s was just 0.032s quicker than Efren Vazquez, while title rival Alex Marquez was almost half a second adrift in 10th position.
The young Australian, who will jump to MotoGP’s premier class with LCR Honda next year, believes his squad are well on the way to finding the ideal setup for the weekend.
“We can be really happy with the work done,” said Miller, who is 25 points behind Marquez in the Moto3 standings.
“It has been a very productive day. We changed different things with our KTM and I think we are going in the right direction.
“In the afternoon, when it was windier and we were using new tyres, we were able to go faster and set a good time.
“We are where we should be, but we still have to work hard to be ready for the race. Improvements can still be made with myself and the bike.”
Elsewhere, Remy Garner, the son of former world champion Wayne Gardner ended the day in 23rd spot, while South Australia’s Olly Simpson was 28th out of a 34 bike field.
In Moto2, Esteve Rabat continued to be the man to beat onboard the Marc VDS Racing machine with Australia’s Ant West just a second off the pace in 13th position.
Wildcard rider Aidan Wagner showed encouraging signs throughout the day as he got to grips with the Marc VDS Racing Moto2 bike. The Queenslander was only 1.7s adrift of the pace in the opening practice session.
