Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller reckons his third place in his home Australian grand prix at Phillip Island “feels like a win”.
Miller held off team-mate Francesco Bagnaia for the final podium spot by just 0.005, a battle originally for fourth heading onto the final tour before Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales crashed out from second at the MG hairpin with just a couple of corners remaining.
The Aussie’s third place was his fifth career premier class rostrum result, but his first at home. He picked up a victory at the venue while competing in Moto3 back in 2014, which until today marked his only visit to the podium at home at grand prix level.
Miller hadn’t looked particularly competitive throughout the weekend prior to the 27 lap encounter, having managed only ninth in qualifying-over as second down on Vinales’ pole position benchmark.
He made good progress in the race though as part of a seven-man battle for fourth once the leading trio of Vinales, Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow had pulled away at around a thirds distance.
He moved into fourth at the start of the final lap thanks to a mistake from then-fourth placed Andrea Dovizioso, meaning he just had to hold off charging team-mate Bagnaia-who had impressively recovered from 15th on the grid to ultimately finish fourth.
Miller revealed that he worked hard to conserve his tyres across the race distance, this having been an achillies heel of his in past races.
“I saw those three bolt, especially Marc and Maverick and I knew on the grid they were on softs as I saw them change.
“I just tried to manage the race, try not to go too hard too early like I have done in the past, and then I got to fourth in the end there and thought it was probably the best I was going to get and decided to defend the position.
“Then to my surprise I saw dust over the top of Lukey (Heights) and thought ‘who’s that?’, then I saw it was Maverick (Vinales) and then I realised, so I just defended the last two corners.
“It was amazing as we’ve worked so hard over the weekend to try and establish a base setting with not much track time so massive thanks to the team as they’ve had to work overtime this weekend with the livery and all that.
“It’s not a win, but it feels like one.”
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