Jack Miller is “optimistic” that he can win another MotoGP race before leaving Ducati at season’s end.
Five rounds remain in the 2022 season, Miller’s last with the Ducati Lenovo Team before he moves on to KTM.
The Queenslander has two victories in almost six seasons on a Desmosedici, in consecutive races last year at Jerez and Le Mans, with his best result so far this year being a second place at Le Mans also.
However, he has qualified on the front row for the last four races and led two of those, ever so briefly at the Red Bull Ring when he could not make a pass on team-mate Francesco Bagnaia stick, before crashing out of first position on Lap 2 at Misano.
Miller finished fifth last time out at Aragon as Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini stretched Ducati’s winning streak with a final-lap pass on Bagnaia, who had taken the previous four victories, and is confident he can join the party.
“I actually surprised myself in qualifying a bit because I was under what was my best time by six tenths [of a second] – and Pecco [Bagnaia] still beat me for pole!” he wrote in his post-round blog.
“I felt good, felt like I was ready and it was close, but the key thing was to be on the front row – Pecco, me and Enea again, so that shows that Ducati works fantastic at all different sorts of tracks now.
“We’ve been on pole six races in a row now and won five of those, so I’m optimistic I can get another win before it’s over because of the run we’re on, it’s in my hands to do it.”
Not only has a Ducati rider taken pole position for the last six races, the manufacturer has locked out the front row at the latter three of those with some combination of Bagnaia, Bastianini, and Miller.
However, whereas ‘Jackass’ vied for the win in Austria and San Marino, he was shuffled back to fifth within seven laps of the Aragon Grand Prix and stayed there for the balance of the 23-lapper.
“I’d say my race was … reasonable, that’s probably the best word for it,” he commented.
“Happy enough, let’s say. It was more or less the race I set out to have, but I did get caught up in the battle there early on with Brad [Binder] and Aleix [Espargaro] and I was the last one in that group of three.
“I tried everything but I couldn’t make any headway – my top speed at the end of the back straight was great, but I kept losing a couple of bike lengths coming off the corners.”
Miller added, “This one wasn’t like Misano, because at Misano I had a lot of confidence and was trying to ride away with the victory.
“Here, it was more trying to save the tyre to have something left at the end to attack those boys but I started to lose the front, mid-corner, a lot near the end, and that took away my confidence a bit.”
Bastianini’s win sealed the constructors’ championship for Ducati, while Miller moved back up to fifth in the riders’ standings, one point ahead of stablemate Johann Zarco, who finished eighth on his Prima Pramac Racing entry.
Practice at Japan’s Motegi starts this Friday.
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