Jack Miller arrived in Qatar hoping to find answers to Honda's questions about the engine to adopt for the 2017 MotoGP season. The 22-year-old Australian therefore worked on numerous parameters to finish in sixteenth place in the cumulative ranking of the three days of testing. Despite a crash, the winner of the 2016 Dutch Grand Prix is in high spirits and swears that he has kept an ace up his sleeve in order to do better when the first meeting of the year gets underway.
When we look more closely, we see that all the protagonists who we might think were disappointed by their last tests, or almost, are announcing much better things for the Qatar Grand Prix which will start in less than ten days. Suzuki smiles, Petrucci also, and Miller share this joyful mood. Despite a sixteenth time in 1'55.455.
A ranking which nevertheless corresponds to the objectives announced by the boss on the ground Michael Bartholomew : " when we return to Losail in a few days I hope our drivers will be able to score points ". There is therefore still a place to be won for Miller : " I feel good on the bike and we have done a lot of work. I am satisfied with my consistency on the clock during long runs. Our level is good and we will have to continue on this path at the time of the Grand Prix ».
He pursues : " I crashed at turn 1, went onto a dirty part of the track and lost the front. It was good to put in the best performance at the end. Even if it wasn't as quick as hoped. We just have to put all the good things together, which we haven't managed to do. So I have an ace up my sleeve that I will play when we come back. And I can't wait to be there! »
As for Michael Bartholemy, we also saw things on the bright side: “ these tests were positive and we have progressed compared to last year. Jack feels good on the bike and the difficulties he encountered until then have disappeared. He tried a lot of things and did quite a few tricks. We were more focused on race pace than chasing the time. He set his best time at the end on soft tires and it's good for his confidence ».
