Source: Supplied.

Australia’s lone MotoGP World Championship hope Jack Miller has named Phillip Island’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix as the highlight of his following a steep learning curve with LCR Honda in 2015.

Miller, 20, capped off his rookie campaign with a 21st place finish at Valencia last Sunday, but identified his 15th place result – top of the Opens – at Phillip Island as the high point of his season.

“First of all I’d like to thank the LCR Honda team for taking this risk and putting me in this year,” Miller commented. “It’s been an awesome year, I’ve enjoyed it a lot. We’ve had some ups and downs and didn’t quite achieve the goal of a top 10 finish that we wanted, but we showed some really strong performances during the season and I’m looking forward to coming back to the MotoGP class next year.

“I think we improved a lot during the course of the year – especially compared to when we tested here at the start of the year. We’ve improved by nearly two seconds and that’s not easy to do. I think Phillip Island would have to be our best race of the season and now I’m looking forward to improving again next year.”

LCR Honda team principal Lucio Cecchinello said it was a positive season with Miller alongside team leader Cal Crutchlow. Miller will begin testing with the Marc VDS Racing Team today at Valencia in preparation for 2016.

“It was an honour to work with Jack and giving him the opportunity to learn the MotoGP class category,” Cecchinello explained. “When he arrived from Moto3 everybody thought that he wouldn’t be able to make such a big step, but he definitely confirmed with his attitude and talent that he could make it.

“I’m very happy that twice this year he finished as best Open class rider, he also regularly beat many other Open class riders so he definitely did a good job. Of course, everybody always wants more good results, but MotoGP is a really tough category – especially this season – and I think he did really well and wish him all the best for the future.”