Jack Miller: Strange vibration 'not really in our hands'

Jack Miller spent the early part of last Sunday's Qatar MotoGP in the lead group, but his victory hopes ended when a 'strange vibration' began around lap 8 of 22.

The new Factory Ducati rider eventually faded to ninth and, while coy on the giving details on the eve of this weekend's second round, described it as a 'tyre related, one-off thing' that was 'not really in our hands'

"With time and understanding we were able to find what the issue was. Not really in our hands. We’ll hope the luck falls on our side this week," said Miller, who had been the fastest rider in pre-season testing at Losail."

"We suffered a strange vibration from the rear, which made me unable to carry corner speed," he added.

"Difficult to say exactly, what I can say about it: Tyre related. A one off thing. I really started having issues around the 8 lap mark. I felt like I was in purgatory. I couldn’t go forward. I couldn’t go back. I was just stuck there.

"Like I said, we just keep positive, keep working the way it is, work even more in the sessions this weekend and try and avoid something like that the best way we can."

While Miller dropping out of the victory fight, Maverick Vinales went on to win the race for Yamaha ahead of the Ducatis of Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia, who both overtook the Suzuki of reigning champion Joan Mir on the run to the line.

"When Vinales came past I was able to push and follow him. I felt if all stayed normal I could have followed him a bit and see what we could have done at the end of the race. We were all rather similar at the front," Miller said.

"The Suzukis were where I expected them to be. The Yamaha, especially here, had great qualifying positions with both Fabio and Maverick and were able to not lose many positions at the start and were running at front like they should. It’s a factory team. The bike won the most races last year. They should be there."