until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Jack Miller says his plan to breeze past Valencian Grand Prix winner Franco Morbidelli on the last lap and ‘ride off into the sunset’ was foiled by the Petronas Yamaha rider’s stunning pace and better front tyre, setting up an epic last lap duel between the pair in the race.
Morbidelli led, as he has for each of his three victories in 2020, from start to finish, converting pole position into the race lead almost as soon as the action got underway. Never managing to eke out a lead of more than a second or so, though, he was unable to shake the tail of Miller in the closing laps.
Fading slightly as the 27-lap race around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo came to a close, it allowed Miller to get back on his tail – and to set up what the Pramac Ducati rider believed in his mind was the perfect last lap strategy.
“Franco had an incredible pace at the front, and I was just hanging on by my teeth to the back of him at the start,” he admitted afterwards. “Mid-race I started coming back to him, and started rubbing my hands thinking ‘yeah, this is OK.’
“I had a mega plan laid out in my head where I was gonna sail past him on the start-finish straight with one lap to go and ride off into the sunset, but it wasn’t to be! I soon found out when I went into turn one and nearly went off the edge.
“There was a bit of a tailwind and I went in a bit deep, and he got the better of me at turn five. I nearly ended up on the grass at turn seven, but he got the better of me and he deserved it!”
Swapping the lead multiple times in the final lap, Morbidelli said that the action was all a bit of a blur afterwards – but believed that his pre-race tyre choice is what gave him the edge and ultimately the race win.
“I don’t remember that last lap that well!” Morbidelli said.
“I knew he was going underneath me, maybe because he had the medium front and I had the hard, so I could get stopped a little better. All I was thinking was that I had to go underneath him!”
“Yeah,” Miller agreed, “it kinda felt like that! He had to do it – if he hadn’t retaliated at that point, I would have been strong for the rest of the lap because I had saved something for it. He did what he had to do. I gave my all, I was aiming for every apex and to run a tight line, and we came quite close a few times.
“But it was a nice clean fight, and I think that’s what the people want to see and it’s what we gave them. It’s a shame to come out second best today and in Austria, but one day we’ll get it right!”
