Morbidelli escapes penalty over Miller crash

Miller was running 11th on Lap 18 when the Pramac rider came down his inside at Turn 5 of the Jerez circuit, making contact which put both on the deck and into the gravel trap.

Marshals then intervened as the Red Bull KTM pilot appeared to express his anger towards Morbidelli, although stewards decided to punishment was necessary.

“After [a] hearing with both riders and after further review, [this] was determined to be a race incident,” they advised.

Miller said post-race, “I had some pace and was trying to go with Pedro [Acosta] when I copped a bike to the side in Turn 5.

“There was nothing I could do about it. Not ideal.”

The other two clashes which were investigated post-race also resulted in no penalties.

Johann Zarco and Acosta collided on Lap 1, although both stayed upright.

Stewards advised, “The intention to penalise would have been a drop of one position for #5 [Zarco], but the Stewards having reviewed the footage decided that #5 corrected the matter himself by the following sector.”

Zarco himself was then taken out by Aleix Espargaro at Turn 5 on Lap 10.

On that, stewards reported, “After [a] hearing with both riders and after further review, [this] was determined to be a race incident.”

For Miller, the Spain event is the second in the first four this season in which he has failed to score points in either of the Sprint or the Race.

He crashed on Lap 1 of the Jerez Sprint and remounted but took the chequered flag in 14th, five positions away from the points.

While several spills in that encounter were explained by subtle wet patches, Miller had a different issue, although he did not go into specifics.

“We had an issue at the start and that meant I had to pick the bike up after it was hopping a bit into the last turn as I committed to the line,” recounted the Queenslander on Saturday.

“The guys are having a look at it now. I just tried to circulate and understand more.

“It’s been one of those runs at the moment. We just need some ‘clean air’ because I think we are really close to something.”

Whether that will be reviewed again in Monday’s post-race test remains to be seen.

“We are struggling to turn the luck in our direction… but we’ll keep plugging away and the test tomorrow will be important to iron out a few things and understand what’s going on,” said Miller after the feature race.

The highest-ranked rider in the KTM group is GasGas rookie Pedro Acosta in fourth in the riders’ championship, with Brad Binder seventh and Miller 14th.