Source: Supplied.

North Queenslander Jack Miller didn’t set the world alight on the opening day of the 2017 MotoGP pre-season, but he declared himself satisfied with the latest package from his Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda team.

The 22-year-old took advantage of much-needed dry track time to continue evaluating the revised chassis they first tested in Valencia last year with a positive response, as well as the latest specification tyres from Michelin.

Michelin provided three new front tyres, all evolution versions of the tyres first seen at the final race of 2016 in Valencia, and one new rear with a slightly stiffer construction to aid drive grip. Miller stopped the clocks in 22nd position with a 2m01.942s.

“Overall I’m pretty satisfied,” Miller explained. “Today was all about getting into the swing of things again after such a long break, not crashing and testing a few things on the bike. I like the new chassis a lot and the new compound Michelins, which we tested for the first time today, are an interesting development.

“Still, there’s a lot of room for improvement between now and the end of the test, so I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. Hopefully the track will have dried out after the rain this afternoon and we can get back out there and get in some decent laps.”

Miller is hoping for more dry track time when testing resumes today, but the weather forecast doesn’t look promising, with rain showers predicted to disrupt the penultimate day of testing from early morning onwards.

While rain is nothing new at Sepang, resurfacing work carried out last year means the track is now slow to dry, with the result that rain showers are far more disruptive to the testing program than in previous years.