Yamaha rider Miller cursed: “For a moment, I thought I could win today”

A week ago, Jack Miller was denied his home Grand Prix. When everything went against him in the MotoGP Sprint at Sepang too, ‘Thriller Miller’ snapped. Calm has long since returned to the Pramac pit.

Thomas Kuttruf

MotoGP

31.10.2026 - 13:55

This article is an automatically generated English version. The Original Article was published in German.

Jack Miller ärgerte sich über die Technik-Mannschaft
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Jack Miller

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Like all the other Yamaha riders, Jack Miller struggled with his Yamaha’s lack of competitiveness on the dry track at Sepang. Unlike a week earlier at his home race, the Australian failed to qualify for the second qualifying session. He could manage no better than 16th on the grid at the Sepang Circuit.

Miller had nothing to lose – and, in the early stages of the sprint, briefly looked like a potential dark horse and sprint winner. This was because a few raindrops began to fall as early as the second of ten laps. In accordance with MotoGP protocol, the white flags were immediately waved, signalling to the riders that they could switch to a bike with a wet-weather set-up.

Jack Miller sensed a golden opportunity

The Pramac rider, who seemed to be on the verge of breaking down emotionally last Sunday when his home Grand Prix was cancelled due to the weather conditions, reacted immediately and turned into the pit lane at the end of lap 2. But upon arriving at the Pramac pit, Miller realised that his wet-weather bike wasn’t ready. Gesticulating and swearing, ‘Thriller Miller’ stood on the track, dumbfounded.

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Jack Miller

After the gruelling sprint, the seasoned MotoGP rider described the situation: “I was running in 17th or 18th place after the start, so I had no chance of scoring any points. When I saw the raindrops on my visor in Turn 7 and spotted the flags, I just thought: ‘I’ve got to be quick now, then maybe I can win.’ I was certain it would rain on the next lap.”

Miller continued: “I mean, when it rains here, it’s usually heavy, so I was determined to give it a go and switch bikes straight away. But when I was in front of the pits, I quickly realised my bike wasn’t ready – so I let rip at my crew chief, Massimo. That was too much for me at that moment. Because I’d told him before the race that the wet-weather bike had to be ready to go – and he probably thought it would be ready in a few laps. I think we had a communication problem.”

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Nicht begeistert: Pramac-Yamaha-Pilot Miller
© Gold and Goose

But Jack Miller managed to pull himself together again. “I’ve already apologised to him for my reaction. The thing was – for a moment I thought I could win here – and then it dawned on me that it was all over.”

Heavy drops, but the downpour never came

The Aussie admitted that he’d been thinking about the chance of a weather storm even before the sprint. Miller: “My weather radar had actually predicted rain towards the end of the race – which is exactly what happened – but you never know for sure here. And when a few heavy drops started to fall, I thought – it’s about to start now.”

As we know, things turned out differently. It wasn’t until the cool-down lap that the heavens briefly opened. Too late, not just for Miller, who didn’t even take to the track and was listed as ‘DNF’. For Morbidelli, Viñales, Mir and Lecuona, who had also bet on rain, the Sepang Sprint turned into a sporting fiasco.

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