MotoGP, Miller brushes off wildlife problem: “What are we going to do? Exterminate the whole island?”

After his win at Motegi and second place at Buriram, today Jack Miller could not go any better than eighth in qualifying at Phillip Island. Not a particularly exciting result, even if this season the Ducati Lenovo Team rider has shown several times that he is not influenced by his Saturday position. The Australian therefore hopes to follow up on the positive trend of the last few races, with the aim of giving a show in front of an enthusiastic home crowd and, if possible, repeating the performance of 2019 when he got onto the third step of the podium.

"We improved from yesterday, even if it is not the result I expected. The start from the third row does not mean that we won’t have a good race, which here is always long and tiring - admitted Miller - in the warm up we will sort some things out on the bike in terms of balance and corner entry. We will have to try to put to good use our experience in terms of race strategy and tyre management, different from the previous rounds. We have clear ideas on what we need to do ".

Who's the favourite for tomorrow?

"There are a lot of fast riders, at the start I expect a group with a lot of them. I would say Marquez seems to be in really good shape. I wouldn’t underestimate Vinales either, here he goes really well and in 2019 both of them were fighting for the win. It’ll be important to manage the tyres better for the last laps. "

For Jack Miller it was also a special day: Phillip Island decided to dedicate Turn 4 to him, now officially renamed 'Miller Corner'. After Gardner, Doohan and Stoner, now the Ducati rider will also have the pleasure of seeing his name at his home circuit.

"Having this honour is amazing. I am honoured and I find it fantastic to have a curve with your name on a track like this one."

Are you confident in the support of the fans tomorrow?

"I'll need all their support, I'm happy with the turnout yesterday and today and to see the stands so crowded after three years. My home GP of course means more pressure, but it's positive pressure."

Finally, Jack Miller returned to the topic of the island's wildlife, more specifically on the misadventure that happened to Aleix Espargarò, who came across a wallaby running across the track during yesterday morning's FP1.

"Don't get me wrong, it's very dangerous to have kangaroos and what not hopping around in the middle of a race track when you're doing 350 km/h. But like I said yesterday in the safety commission, I understand that there's not a six-foot fence around this joint, but that kangaroo didn't just waltz on in. I'd say it was burrowed in somewhere, and it was woken by the noise of these 300 horsepower machines starting to go around. It's not nice to have them on the race track, but at the end of the day, what are you going to do? I'm sure there's nothing waltzing in over the fences now, because the fences are six-deep with people. I don't think it's too much of an issue."

When asked if the safety commission had proposed any solution, Miller reiterated that the matter can’t really be resolved.

"At the end of the day when you have a track in such an iconic location like this, you're always going to have an issue with wildlife. Whether it's seagulls or whatever those dodo-looking birds are, you're always going to have an issue. What are we going to do? Exterminate the whole island? Everyone knows when you come to Australia there is wildlife. All you have to do is drive down a highway and look at the roadkill. There's a lot of animals in this joint and not a lot of people. It's different to everywhere else in the world."