Jack Miller is predicting a “wild race” at Sepang given the dramas for his team-mate Francesco Bagnaia and the other two key MotoGP championship contenders.
Bagnaia crashed in Free Practice 3 and was forced into Qualifying 1, but then crashed again in Qualifying 2 and could only earn ninth on the starting grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
However, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider is still set to start ahead of his key rivals, with Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro also crashing in Q2 before ultimately being classified 10th, and Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo finishing last of the 12 riders in that session after a near-crash.
Quartararo will have to try and fight back from the rear of Row 4 with a broken finger, after it was he who took a tumble in the Free Practice 4 session which immediately precedes the two stanzas of qualifying.
Miller also blotted his copybook with a highside late in Q1 and is due to start from 14th in what is a mixed-up grid.
“I anticipate quite a wild race tomorrow,” said the Queenslander.
Take the short survey.
“Just by judging how everyone is riding, the amount of crashes we’ve had already.
“The three championship contenders all seem to be pretty highly-strung. It’s not normal to have all three of them back in ninth, 10th and 12th.
“So, I think [it] is going to be quite a wild race.
“Also, because there’s some guys starting up front that are not normally there, quite aggressive guys.”
Another of the major incidents on qualifying day at Sepang was Quartararo’s team-mate Franco Morbidelli nearly causing a shunt when he impeded both Bagnaia and Marc Marquez in FP3, just after he had seen rain flags.
Bagnaia admitted that run-in got to him, as the pressure of the championship builds, and gave a damning self-assessment of his afternoon.
“Today, the only good thing was FP4, and Q1 obviously,” the Italian remarked.
“But FP4 because I was very constant, very fast with very used [soft] rear tyre.
“Then I just did everything to try to ruin the day, because this morning I was too upset, too nervous with what happened with Franco.
“I was a bit angry. But after an hour, I said, ‘It’s something that can happen to everybody.’
“So I’m human, and I’m starting to feel a bit of pressure, but I think it’s normal.”
As for the crash in Q2, which occurred at Turn 4 after he had just set a new fastest first sector, Bagnaia was also hard on himself.
“For the qualifying, I wasn’t smart enough to understand that my pace was good enough to be on the front row without forcing too much, and I forced a lot in Turn 4, and I lost the front,” he recounted.
“So, it was the biggest mistake.”
Discussion about this post