Image: Supplied.

Ducati Lenovo Team’s Jack Miller utterly dominated the Japanese GP in what was a display of his true MotoGP potential, with the Australian later sharing that the outing at Motegi was ‘100 percent’ the race of his life.

Miller showed great pace throughout the limited dry running in Japan, topping FP1 and maintaining great pace on the hard option tyres in Sunday’s warm-up to consistently lap in the 1m45s bracket.

Despite qualifying P7 in wet conditions, Miller swiftly made his way to the front during the race and translated his pace shown in practice on the hard tyres to continually stretch out the advantage over second-placed Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing). The number 43 extended his lead to over five seconds throughout the bout and took the chequered flag with a 3.4s buffer ahead of future teammate Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) after easing in the closing stages.

“I never thought that I’d be able to win a Grand Prix like that, just pulling away from everybody and dominating… it was a pretty incredible feeling,” Miller said. “When you’re riding like that, the biggest opponent you have is the little man inside your head trying to put doubts in your mind, so I just tried not to listen to him too much! It was a case of hitting my marks and not making any mistakes. It all felt under control.

“I got asked afterwards whether that was the race of my life, and I’d have to say 100 percent yes. Ever since we kicked things off here in Japan on Friday afternoon, I felt incredible on the bike. Everything felt like it was coming relatively easy. The bike was working fantastic and every little thing we tried was getting better.”

The win at Motegi was Miller’s fourth and most convincing in the premier class to date. He is fifth in the 2022 MotoGP World Championship standings as the series moves to Buriram, Thailand this weekend, with the Australian GP at Phillip Island coming up on 14-16 October.