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Jack Miller revealed he “had a little cry” after the Aussie crashed out of the lead of the MotoGP season finale at Valencia.
The Red Bull KTM rider admitted it was a “hard one to take” with a coveted victory within his grasp until his factory RC16 washed out from underneath him in the change of direction.
“That’s a hard one to take, having a win slip through my fingers here in Valencia,” said Miller.
“I had a little cry; it was one of those ones where it got away.
“To be honest I didn’t really feel like I could do too much wrong on Sunday. I went with Brad [Binder] and had a moment, so I thought ‘I need to go alone now’.
“I started having some moments on the right-hand side of the tyre, but I had a good feeling in Turn 4; I had a couple of moments going in but I was able to try to force it to get some more temperature.
“And then the change of direction with Turn 10-11, I didn’t even get to grab the brakes, she just disappeared underneath me.”
Miller, who finished 11th in the championship in his maiden season with the Austrian manufacturer, said that while the mishap was a bitter pill to swallow, he was feeling positive overall with his performance in the factory team this season.
“I pushed so hard, we’ve been working our arses off, not only the last couple of weeks, all year,” said Miller.
“It could have been a really sweet way to end it. But it wasn’t to be.
“It cooled down [on Sunday] afternoon, lap by lap you could feel it cooling down. We’re racing the last weekend of November, but I’m not going to blame that – it was the same conditions for everybody.
“It’s such a shit way to end the year for me, I feel like every year I’ve been getting better and better. If you look at results on paper, this year is probably the worst it’s been in quite a while but we’ve had a lot of changes and a lot of difficulties this season, but overcome a lot of things,” he added.
“This bike is only going to continue to get better and better and I hope me as a rider, I hope to continue to get better and better.
“Twelve months ago, people were saying I’d be out of a job already, and here we are at the last race crashing out seven laps to go from the lead, so I think we can take pride in the year we’ve had.
“We’ve had our ups and downs which is normal, but on the whole we can be pretty proud of what we’ve done.
“You always want more, of course, but still… It’s been a busy year but one I wouldn’t change for anything.”
Miller has retained his seat at Red Bull KTM Factory Racing despite speculation that he might be demoted to testing duties, and then to GasGas Tech3, to make way for Spanish sensation Pedro Acosta.
Post-season testing starts this evening (AEDT) at Valencia.
