Red Bull KTM’s Jack Miller is high on confidence after setting the fastest lap in both practice sessions so far at the French MotoGP round.
The Queenslander’s 1:31.449s in Practice 1 at Le Mans saw him pip Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Ducati) by 0.095s before he extended his margin to 0.119s, over Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) in Practice 2.
“We’ll go for it, that’s for certain,” said Miller.
“It’s good, you know, the bike is strong.
“Coming from being strong in America, Jerez, then here? Different tracks in their own right.
“It’s amazing. I look forward to every race with this bike. It’s an amazing team and an amazing project. I am loving it.
“To come into a race weekend knowing you can be competitive from the get-go is really nice.”
Miller is already a race winner in France, in 2021 with the Ducati Team.
Recapping the 2023 round thus far, he remarked, “A perfect Friday is always good but hopefully we can translate it into a good Saturday and a better Sunday.
“It’s a strange track, Le Mans. You can’t push to your absolute limit like you can at other tracks.
“The grip is low at points. At other points it is fantastic. So you have to take it corner by corner.
“Nonetheless, the bike was good from the get-go.
“In the corners or sectors where I wasn’t overly confident this morning, we were able to work on them in P1 and especially P2 to slowly but surely improve.
“To throw that lap in, at the end, was nice.
“The KTM handles well in the wind, it doesn’t seem to get too affected. Turn 1 was really blowing – it’s a hard one, with all the aero on the bikes, to get the thing to go in there! But it seemed to stay stable. I pushed full-on.”
The top 10 riders on combined Practice 1/Practice 2 times, and hence already booked in for Qualifying 2, are Miller, Espargaro, Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati), Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati), Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati), Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Team), and Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati).
Marquez crashed in each of Practice 1 and Practice 2 in his comeback from injury but was okay.
His day was also much better than that of fellow world champion Fabio Quartararo, who is going into Qualifying 1 after managing only 12th-fastest on his Monster Energy Yamaha.
Practice 3, both qualifying sessions, and the Sprint take place tonight (AEST).
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