In the fight for the podium, Jack Miller collides with Joan Mir and catapults them both out of the race – But Mir believes he would have crashed even without this incident
Both Joan Mir (Suzuki) and Jack Miller (Ducati) had a chance at the podium at the Portuguese Grand Prix. But with six laps to go, a collision took the rivals out of the race prematurely. The trigger for this was Miller.
The Australian was in fourth place when he tried to overtake in turn 1 at the start of lap 19, but slipped off the front wheel on the brakes and touched Mir’s bike, which also went down. Asked about the collision, the Ducati rider was remorseful.
“It’s never nice to crash in a good position so late in the race. And to take a rival with you in the process makes it even worse. So yeah, I feel really bad. But it is what it is,” Miller commented on his faux pas.
Miller seeks explanation for his race crash
Though the race had started promising: “I felt good, the race was going well. In the first, let’s say, 16 laps I took it easy on the tyres. Then I started to push and catch up with the guys in front of me. When I was close, Johann Zarco (Pramac-Ducati) overtook me. That’s when I had to attack as well. “
“I tried to get close enough in turn 1 for three laps in a row and I felt I had done that. When I started to overtake, I was quite far inside – I don’t know if I hit a wet patch there. Anyway, the front wheel locked and I rammed him. “
A devastating end to two strong rides @jackmilleraus and @JoanMirOfficial‘s Sunday ended in the Turn 1 gravel trap PortugueseGP pic. twitter.com/sc6qnM4FwM
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) April 24, 2022
For Miller and Mir the race was over. Still in the gravel, both shook hands and the race officials also chalked up the collision as a normal accident. “It’s something that can happen to anyone,” said Mir, summing up the incident.
Mir isn’t upset about the collision most of all
“I’ve made that mistake a few times too. I know it wasn’t intentional. He just wanted to overtake in a braking zone where there was no space and I also braked quite hard. Then his front wheel locked. “
“It’s a shame, but as I said, I’ve made that mistake a few times. I hope he learns from it and it doesn’t happen again,” the Suzuki rider continued. More than the crash, he was disappointed by his race pace. For although he was in third place at the time of the crash, Mir was unhappy.
“Already in the first, second lap, the front didn’t feel good. The bike was very unsteady. It’s a shame because I started the weekend well. It looked like we had a good pace. But again something went wrong. “
Front tyre problems slow Mir down
Was it because the wet practices left only the warm-up to prepare for a race in the dry? “Probably yes. We had little time to try things out. But that was the case for everyone. Then in the race we had the problem. And it was unexpected, to be honest,” admits Mir.
“In the warm-up we rode with the soft front tyre and it was quite soft. For the race we assumed that everything would be good with the tyre we used last year. But it wasn’t like that. “
“I couldn’t really push or get an advantage anywhere. It was just a matter of survival. If I hadn’t crashed with 10 laps to go, it would have been different at some point. The front was simply at the limit,” the Spaniard draws a bitter conclusion.
Miller raves: “Bike worked fantastically “
Miller, on the other hand, believes that without the collision he could have even attacked brand mate Zarco for second place: “Definitely. I felt very good with my pace and the grip I had. Even if it makes little sense to say that now. I had conserved the tyres well to push again.”
Despite the zero, the Ducati rider is therefore trying to look on the bright side. “We were well in the race and could have scored solid points. The pace was there at the end of the race,” Miller emphasises and enthuses: “The bike worked fantastically. We picked up where we left off in Austin.”
The Australian scored his first podium of the season there a week ago, amid speculation about his future. Most recently he has been linked to LCR Honda. But Miller says: “There is nothing to it at all. I don’t know where that came from. I was surprised by it myself. “
