Jack Miller salvages top Yamaha result, feared loose fairing would “deploy” at 330km/h

Jack Miller battled a loose fairing to finish as the top M1 rider on his Pramac Yamaha debut in Sunday’s Thai MotoGP.

Frustrated after crashing out of sixth in the Sprint, the Australian settled into the same position for the first half of the grand prix.

But a sweltering race suddenly became a lot more complicated from lap 8 of 26.

“I had a little issue with the fairing, which is when I lost touch with the front group,” Miller explained. “One of the clips popped out and the whole fairing started coming loose.

“Aero is crucial these days, and I was struggling with turning and carrying corner speed especially in what was my strongest sector, Turns 4 and 5.

“On top of that, I was cooking because all the hot air was being directed straight at me, instead of out the back of the bike. It made a hot race even hotter.”

Miller not only had burns on his legs but also his inner arms.

“Yeah, just from trying to hold the fairing in place on the straight,” he revealed.

“When you’d get up to high speed it would pop out even more. I was getting nervous that doing 330 kilometres an hour down the back straight it was going to ‘auto deploy’. So I was trying to hold it together as much as I could!

“I had a couple of off-track excursions once that fairing popped out, I kept hooking my knee on it as I’d go to tip into turn 4.

“So it was a salvage job, but I’d felt really comfortable behind that first group [up until the fairing came loose]. Then we stuck in there, gritted our teeth and were able to bring home a couple of points.”

Jack Miller 'throwing caution to the wind'

Miller finished in the wheeltracks of Fabio di Giannantonio, backing out of a late attack when his soft rear tyre ran out of grip with half a lap to go.

"I was on Diggia, trying to chase him down and I was driving [out of corners] really well until last lap, exit of corner 7. I was throwing caution to the wind on the tyre consumption by that stage. 

"You know you’re nearly home, but basically she cracked through to what I guess would be close to the base rubber and [makes screeching noise] started spinning. I said, ‘oh well, at least we made it’. We tried our best."

Team director Gino Borsoi said: "It's a real shame that Jack had that issue with the fairing; otherwise, his result could have been significantly better.

“However, while everything was running smoothly, he showed he was very competitive, maintaining a great pace that allowed him to stay close to the front.”

After two days of testing and then the Buriram grand prix weekend, Miller is now keen to try his M1 at new tracks.

“Looking forward to Argentina, Texas and Qatar, I think we can have a good crack at all three of them,” he said.

Team-mate Miguel Oliveira finished his first grand prix for Yamaha in 14th, with Monster Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo 15th and Alex Rins 17th.

With Ducati winning, Aprilia fifth, Honda seventh and KTM eighth, Yamaha left Thailand playing catch-up to its rivals in the constructors’ standings.