Violent vibration threw Jack Miller’s legs off the pegs, "bike slid out from under me"
Jack Miller crashes out in Qatar after violent rear vibration ruins hopes of a fightback: “The bike was working… Until it wasn’t”
Jack Miller’s hopes of a late turnaround in Qatar were dashed after a “violent” rear-end vibration led to him crashing out of Sunday’s MotoGP under the floodlights in Lusail.
The Australian had struggled throughout the weekend, crashing twice while battling food poisoning on Friday, then qualifying his Pramac Yamaha in 16th.
Miller briefly gained a position in the early laps on Sunday before being re-passed by former KTM team-mate Brad Binder.
The #43's race then seemed to stabilise and he was regaining his rhythm - until it all unravelled on lap 9 of 22.
“That was the best I‘d felt all weekend - the bike was working well, until it suddenly wasn‘t," he said. “My rhythm was strong, and I was feeling pretty comfortable catching back up to the group ahead."
Miller previously spoke of his relief at leaving the extreme chatter that dogged his final season at KTM behind.
But chatter came back to haunt him on Sunday.
Jack Miller: "The bike suddenly started vibrating violently"
“I switched the map, and then just before the crash, coming into Turn 15 on what could have been my best lap, the bike suddenly started vibrating violently at the rear, so much so that my legs came off the pegs.
"I had to slow down, and even then my lap time was a 1‘53.9.”
Disaster then struck a few corners later.
“Martin passed me, and I followed him into Turn 1, but at Turn 2, another left-hander, as soon as I leaned in, I lost the front," he said.
“I managed to keep the bike up with my elbow, but when I pushed in deeper, it started vibrating again. I was offline and onto the dirty part of the track, and the bike just slid out from under me.
“We saw very clearly in the data that something changed from one lap to the next. Why, we don‘t know.
“The tyre looked fine, everything seemed okay, so we need to understand more about what happened.
“Honestly, it ended the way the whole weekend had been going. I‘m happy to be heading to Jerez: I think this bike will work well there.”
A similar fate met team-mate Augusto Fernandez, who crashed four laps later at Turn 4, bringing a double DNF for the satellite Yamaha squad.
“It has been a tough weekend,” admitted team director Gino Borsoi.
“Our engineers will now analyse the data to fully understand what exactly happened... We now have a one-week break before Jerez, and we have some homework to do.”
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
