News 31 Oct 2016

Top 10 and leading Honda at Sepang satisfying for Miller

Eighth a strong way to wrap up fly-away sector in Malaysia.

Source: Supplied.

Source: Supplied.

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS’s Jack Miller was the top-finishing Honda in a difficult shortened MotoGP race at Sepang in Malaysia on Sunday.

The Australian claimed his fifth top 10 finish of the season so far after starting 14th on the grid. He made an early charge to settle in 10th despite not finding the optimum set-up for the wet conditions.

After a mid-race battle with Alvaro Bautista for eighth, Miller elected to bring his Honda RC213V home as the first Honda, finishing one second clear of Pol Espargaro. The race start was delayed by 20 minutes because of heavy rain and reduced to 19 laps.

“I am always looking for more, but in the conditions today I can take this result,” Miller said. “It was pretty good considering the really tricky conditions, it wasn’t easy to stay on the bike. All weekend I had not been comfortable with our set-up in the wet, so I’m reasonably happy to bring it home in the top 10 and be the first Honda rider. Now it’s off to Valencia and hopefully a strong finish to the season.”

Team principal Michael Bartholemy commented: “The target was to finish the race for both riders and for Jack to be in the top 10 and first Honda in these conditions is good result. For sure we did not have the set-up for Jack at 100 percent, but overall I’m happy to finish the three flyaway races with this result.”

The result for Miller as best of the Hondas on Sunday came after Repsol Honda-mounted world champion Marc Marquez and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow both fell victim to the tricky conditions encountered during the penultimate race.

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