‘I can ride a motorcycle sometimes’ - was Motegi Miller’s best MotoGP win?
After making a good start, Miller picked off six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez, Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira in quick succession, before doing the same to race leader Jorge Martin at turn 11.
His favourite overtaking spot, turn 11 was the scene of four of his five passes during the early laps, which included a double overtake on Marquez and Oliveira.
Once in the lead, Miller produced the type of dominance we’ve seen from team-mate Francesco Bagnaia at times, but not himself.
Speaking after the race, Miller added: "I can ride a motorcycle sometimes. [Laughs] I mean, I felt amazing all weekend, to be honest, since I rolled out in the first Free Practice.
"It went better than planned to be honest. Yesterday I was a little bit disappointed after the qualy, I really felt I could do a better job in the wet. But being seventh on the grid, I thought ‘okay we’ve got our work cut out for us’ but that we can do a good job from there.
"I knew my pace from the Friday practice and even in the warm-up I was able to put in a heap [of consistent] laps in the 1m 45s on the H [hard tyre] and I felt like that was the race tyre.
"Once I got going I seemed to be able to pick off the blokes relatively quickly and then it was just left to me and Jorge and I fired it in pretty deep on him - he nearly got back [ahead] - but once I hit the front I was just able to sort of set my pace.
"I knew where I could push and where to manage it. The bike worked amazing all day. I rode out of my skin, that’s for certain."
Miller ‘cried like a baby’ on cooldown lap at Japanese MotoGP
Without a victory since Le Mans 2021, Miller’s dominant showing was again a sign that KTM are getting a rider that is capable of victories on any given day.
While two of his four premier class race wins have come in the wet - the other was an unlikely victory after Fabio Quartararo suffered with arm pump while leading in Jerez - Miller’s Motegi magic was arguably the first time he won after being unquestionably the fastest rider.
Fastest during Friday’s dry FP1, Miller looked in ominous form from the beginning of the weekend as he eventually went on to win by just under four seconds.
"It was an emotional one that's for certain, as it always is with me, I don't know why," added Miller. "I was crying like a baby on the in lap. It was awesome, I didn't know I had that in me, it was amazing to lead from almost start to finish.
"When you're riding or racing like that, the biggest opponent you've got is the man inside your head - so I was just trying to not listen to him too much, and it was relatively easy to not listen to him today when the bike's working as well as it was.
"It was just a case of hitting my marks and not making any silly mistakes, which is quite easy to do here, to out-brake yourself or whatever - it can cost you a lot of time."
