Jack Miller is not ruling himself out as a possible MotoGP championship winner this year, even if he admits he is a “longshot”.
The Queenslander claimed second in a wet-dry Thailand Grand Prix, 0.730s behind Miguel Oliveira, just a week after his dominant victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Having finished fifth in Aragon a week prior to the start of the Asia-Pacific flyaway phase of the season, he is in fact the highest scorer in the last three races, with 56 points in that period.
Championship leader Fabio Quartararo has collected just eight points, with ‘zeroes’ at Aragon and Buriram, while Miller’s Ducati Lenovo team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, who had been on a sharply upward trajectory with his recent run of four straight victories, collected 36 points from the intercontinental triple-header after he crashed out at Motegi.
It means Quartararo’s margin has been slashed to two points over Bagnaia, with Aleix Espargaro closing back to 20 in arrears despite finishing 11th at Buriram, Enea Bastianini 39 points off the pace, and Miller one further back in fifth spot.
The latter would overtake Quartararo, although not Bagnaia, if results from the previous three races are repeated in the three which remain in 2022, at Australia’s Phillip Island, Malaysia’s Sepang, and Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo, unlikely though that may be.
After a fairly sluggish start to the campaign, it is an ironic twist considering Miller is on the way to Red Bull KTM Factory Racing next year, where he will take Oliveira’s seat.
“It’s a longshot, but we’ll just keep plugging away at it,” he said of his title hopes.
“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I’ll keep trying my best either way.
“Pecco [Bagnaia] did a fantastic job with making big gains after what was a tough weekend, so it’s been an awesome [race] for the team and I can’t thank them enough.
“As I said in Motegi, they haven’t taken their foot off the gas, they’re pushing for both of us to the bitter end, and hopefully we can give them some sort of a reward for all their hard work.”
Oliveira passed Miller for the lead on Lap 14, but only briefly enjoyed a gap of more than a second over #43 in the 11 laps thereafter.
On the last of those, the Ducati rider closed to just three tenths behind the #88 KTM RC16, although he could not get by.
“It was a really good race, a nice, clean battle there with Miguel and I pushed to the bitter end to try and keep him honest, stay within striking distance,” said Miller.
“I made a slight mistake there [but] Miguel was definitely way faster in those last two sectors, every lap.
“I was losing a fair bit of time there and able to claw it back in Sector 1, Sector 2 but last lap, I sort of threw caution to the wind a little bit and was having more of a dig through that sector.
“Like, a lot of movement and whatnot just to try and put myself within range at the last corner but it wasn’t to be.
“He was on rails through there and I had a bit of a moment, ran onto the wetter part of the track, and that was all she wrote.”
Practice at Phillip Island starts on Friday, October 14.
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