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Factory Ducati rider Jack Miller has hit out at the “double standard bulls**t” from some of his MotoGP rivals that saw yet another qualifying session marred by riders waiting on track to find someone to tow them around – at the same time as the series’ bosses are trying to clamp down on exactly the same actions in the Moto3 class.
Addressing the issue has been the prime function of the FIM stewards panel for quite some time after a series of near-misses in the Moto3 class thanks to riders cruising around on the racing line during sessions.
Yet, as the issue has finally started to see some sort of resolution in the lightweight class, it’s become more and more apparent that MotoGP is moving in the opposite direction – causing the usually outspoken Miller to call out his rivals both in their weekly safety commission meeting and while speaking to the media at the Dutch TT.
“I said my piece quite clearly in the safety commission about this,” he said. “There were certain riders who are generally involved in this sort of situation all the time who were trying to defend themselves, saying that it’s not unsafe because they were watching [for other bikes] and stuff like that – and I told them straight up that it’s double standards.
“How can you judge these [Moto3] kids when they’re doing this and then go and do it yourselves, and say ‘no, no, it’s OK because I’m watching’?
“You don’t know when the other bike is coming. You don’t know this.
“So for me we shouldn’t have to have this penalty system, because this is MotoGP. These idiots should be able to do a lap time by themselves.
“They shouldn’t be stopping, they shouldn’t be waiting on the racing line. I almost cleaned up [Jorge] Martin this morning in FP3. He was stopped in the dead centre of Turn 6, the fastest point on the track.
“But they insist on doing it and then they have the audacity to defend it.”
And in fact, more than the actions of the others, it’s their words that have really infuriated the Australian, who says that saying one thing and doing another undermines the entire message sent by the stewards.
“They’re the first ones to bring it up when the kids do it,” continued Miller, “saying that this is bad for TV, bad for the image of the sport. I really don’t understand it, this double standard bulls**t. They say ‘oh but if you make a mistake then you should be punished,’ but it’s like the yellow flag rule – should you only get in trouble if you crash under the yellow flag?
“It’s double standards and you can’t have the best of both. You can’t have the safest way and the sporting way. They guys know who they are, 100%.”
Miller’s fellow Ducati rider Johann Zarco was a major target of towing in Q1, followed by a number of riders including Marc Marquez.
But the Frenchman says – who previously openly admitted to doing likewise – that he believed the riders behind him didn’t do anything dangerous.
“We spoke about this in the safety commission”, he said. “We can’t stop on the track, but we try to manage it and to do it so it’s not dangerous.
“I couldn’t slow down more because I have to also do my job, but it’s part of the game and we can’t change the rules too much for it – we have to be careful and think of the safety, but we’re coming out of the box and it’s the same for everyone, who can push and who cannot. That’s what happened at the end of Q1, and it’s like this.
“You just need to do it at the right time, because if you wait until someone is pushing a lot you can disturb the guy, but today we all went out of the box together and no one was coming fast – we knew we could do it without disturbing anyone.”
