Miller explains how ‘wetter than Silverstone’ Valencia is no issue

Jack Miller says Valencia track conditions were “night and day” wetter compared to Silverstone when the British MotoGP cancelled earlier this year but the track was much safer given the grip riders could find from the circuit surface.

Both Friday practice sessions were hit by heavy rain at Circuit Ricardo Tormo at the 2018 MotoGP final round, with each session briefly suspended by a red flag due to safety conditions, as riders battled the weather in Valencia.

Despite the wet conditions triggering a high number of crashes across all classes, Miller feels Valencia track was better than Silverstone when it didn't drain sufficiently as it was hit by heavy rain which triggered the cancellation of all races due to unsafe track conditions.

“Way, way, way wetter and we are still out there riding,” Miller said when asked to compare today to Silverstone. “The second session only got red flagged because when [Johann] Zarco went down and bits of his bike went all over the track.

“It is night and day compared to Silverstone as the track has really good grip in the wet. I felt I could almost get my elbow down in some places this morning.

“So the track has got really good grip and there are some puddles but they are quite close to the kerbs so you can avoid most of them. Much more rain here than Silverstone – I am no meteorologist but I think so.”

Miller finished second in FP1 despite a late crash before dropping to 13th in FP2. The Australian rider admitted he was pushing for grip which caused his morning off, which briefly saw him trapped underneath his Pramac Ducati, before opting to conserve his wet tyre allocation for the remainder of the race weekend.

“I threw it away there at the end of FP1 and maybe I got a little too carried away,” he said. “I really felt that in FP1 the rear tyre was going and I spun it too much out of Turn 8 and as I went into Turn 11 I tried to make up what I lost.

“I tried to make it all up on brakes, as I’d just put a new medium front on and I felt good. I wasn’t that good and I had a little soil sample but apart from that everything has been pretty good.

“We are sort of running low [on tyres], or haven’t got enough, if what is predicted comes and all the sessions are wet.”

Miller remains second on the combined times as the all of the fastest lap times were set in FP1’s better conditions.