Runaway Japanese Grand Prix winner Jack Miller says his performance felt like “magic”, admitting that his blistering speed “came relatively easy” since hitting the Motegi track on Friday.
The factory Ducati rider scythed through from seventh on the grid to sit third by the end of the opening lap before swiftly cutting through to the lead by the end of the third tour, the Aussie then riding off into the distance – his lead as high as 5.5 seconds at its peak before eventually taking the chequered flag well clear of KTM’s Brad Binder.
The win was his first of 2022 and fourth of his premier class career, and despite being arguably the strongest performance of his MotoGP stint to date Miller admitted that his speed “came relatively easy”, revealing that he was still able to pull away from his pursuers despite short-shifting from several corners late on to protect his rear tyre.
“Since we kicked things off on Friday I’ve felt incredible on the bike, and everything came relatively easy,” explained Miller.
“Everything we tried was making it better and then yesterday I felt really good in the wet and thought I’d be on for a good qualifying, but it didn’t go to plan as I didn’t feel myself and was having moments, so I was a bit annoyed.
“Seventh was a good salvage job but I knew it was going to make things harder for the race, but I got a good start and was able to pick off the boys relatively easily because I felt really confident and knew where my markers were.
“I did a lot of laps on Friday and felt comfortable straight away, I hit the front and then I was able to eke out the gap lap by lap, and every now and again it would jump out by a lot.
“When I got the lead out to about 3.7 I started calming things down, I began short shifting out of Turns 2, 3 and 4 as the bike was spinning a lot, but even then I was still pulling away, it was just magic and I felt incredible.
“The whole race I didn’t miss my line once, it was the best I’ve ridden a motorcycle in my whole life and I was smiling the whole way, even though I had a little bit of arm pump throughout the race.”
One of the key’s to Miller’s first win of the year was his ability to out brake his rivals at the 90 degree Turn 11 right-hander having passed the likes of Binder, Jorge Martin, Marc Marquez as well as Miguel Oliveria all at the same bend in short order to quickly secure the leadership.
Miller says his ability to lock the front wheel of his Ducati significantly without losing the front allowed him to dive past several pilots so effectively.
“I was able to lock the front a fair bit going into that corner (Turn 11) especially when I was doing those overtakes, I got Brad (Binder) in there and the front was locking quite early going into the braking zone but I felt like I had control over it,” added Miller.
“It was collapsing the tyre but it felt like I was getting a lot of deceleration so I was able to fire it in there pretty deep lap after lap, it felt awesome.”
