Miller: a stormy non-run in Italy, final return to Spielberg

A third of the field and half of the Yamaha riders failed to finish the San Marino GP at Misano – including veteran Jack Miller. For the rider from the familiar Pramac team led by team principal Paolo Campinoti, the Grand Prix on the Adriatic coast had already ended in the gravel by lap 2 – it was the culmination of a weekend that could be described as ‘a non-event’. 19th place – behind former team-mate Pecco Bagnaia, who also crashed out of the Grand Prix – 18th in qualifying and 17th in the sprint.

This certainly knocked the popular Aussie for six, as the number 43 had recently surprised everyone once again. At Aragon, Miller had only just missed out on Q2 and had fought a spirited battle with Brad Binder for 10th place in the Grand Prix. But nothing went to plan at Misano: “All in all, it was an unusual weekend in Italy. We’d been performing at a different level in recent events, with a better feel for the bike and better results – things simply didn’t go as expected.”

They weren’t about to admit defeat without a fight. For race day, the M1 was set up in such a way that Miller set off on a comeback with high hopes. As early as lap 1, Miller – who is set to leave the paddock at the end of 2026 – left four rivals in his wake. A few kilometres later, the M1 ended up off the track at Turn 8. Miller commented: “I was just trying to make up a lot of places early on – because later on it’s incredibly difficult to move up the field. That worked very well at the start, too.”

Miller continued: “Before Turn 8, Diogo, Fabio and I were all bunched up very tightly – and we all braked very late; we were all off the racing line and that’s when it caught me out.” Next year’s Yamaha Superbike was back on the track for only a short while, but the tilt hadn’t done the Pramac-Yamaha any favours, as Miller noted: “I got the bike going again, but there was an error message from the traction control. I managed to switch that off as well, but then the clutch stopped working properly.”

After four consecutive GP finishes in the points, Miller has thus lost his momentum in the World Championship standings. The situation there looks far from promising. He is 19th, just ahead of his Yamaha team-mates Rins and Razgatlioglu. Whilst Miller will also be competing at Misano in 2027 – this time on the Superbike R1 – the MotoGP retiree is now on his farewell tour at the Red Bull Ring. The circuit in Styria, where Miller has already stood on the podium twice in third place as a MotoGP rider, is not currently on the World Superbike Championship calendar.

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18.09.2026 - 08:55