Well the opening round of the MotoGP from Qatar has been run and won.
What a great race it was for the ‘Old Master’ Valentino Rossi who took line honours ahead of the Ducati’s of Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone.
For readers of my Facebook page you would know that I’m following the progression of Jack Miller in the Premier Class this season. Hopefully Jack can come to terms with the CWM LCR Honda (sooner rather than later) and post some good results in his rookie season.
My original Facebook post titled ‘Something About Jack’ caused some earnest discussion with my colleagues…so as the season unfolds we’ll soon see whether or not Jack deserves his promotion to MotoGP this year. Only time will tell, however for now Round 1 it was a race to forget for Jack.
After an explosive start that actually saw Miller riding in 10th place from his starting position of 22nd on the grid, things started to fall apart for the 20 year old as he was bundled back through the pack. On lap 3, Miller overshot turn 1, ala Marquez and his race was done.
Despite battling hard throughout the rest of the race, Miller was over eager to pass MotoGP veteran Karel Abraham on the final lap which resulted in both riders coming down and failing to finish.
Jack Miller: “It was a difficult race for us. We got off to a good start and I was going quite good. I made a few mistakes and got a little too tight on the bike but finally got myself back together when we were close to last. After that I really started to work, and closed the gap to the other Open bikes.”
“It was working really well, we pulled up and I passed two guys and then caught up Abraham. When I got there I was in too much of a rush to pass and went too deep and lost the front. Unfortunately it took myself and him out. Being on the last lap it was a shame not to finish the race, but we learnt so much and I look forward to carrying on the learning process in Texas.”
Hopefully Miller can learn from this outing.
The next race in the 2015 MotoGP™ season is the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas on 12 April.
Photograph: ©2015 by Darren Marlowe | Octane Photography – All Rights Reserved