Jack Miller has been penalised for Sunday’s Dutch TT at Assen, handed a single long-lap penalty despite nearly colliding with Maverick Vinales during the final moments of qualifying following an earlier crash for the Ducati rider.
Miller fell at Turn 5 with only a few seconds remaining in the session before remounting and touring home as the chequered flag came out – and admitted afterwards that he got it wrong at the fast Turn 7 when he didn’t see the approaching Aprilia of Vinales.
The reason for the apology! 👇
(Miller had just remounted after a crash at Turn 5) pic.twitter.com/6rFgtXIqip
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 25, 2022
“I haven’t heard anything but I hope not,” said Miller of the sanction before it was officially confirmed. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I did everything I could right – I pulled over to the left, I was side-saddle from bump-starting it, I had a [damaged] footpeg, and I was just trying to load my foot up to make sure it wasn’t going to snap as I put all my weight on it to swing my other leg over.
“I got over, and I was already partly on the left-hand side of the track. I looked to make sure that I wasn’t in anyone’s way or anything and Vinales was just there. There wasn’t much I could do. There’s a lot of track there but I understand the racing line sort of pulls you out that way. But there’s not much more I could do.
“I went to apologise simply because I know it was s**t, but there’s nothing I can do.”
And for his part, Vinales wasn’t left too angry at Miller, either, given that the lap that he was obstructed on had already been irrelevant for him thanks to yellow flags coming out earlier – a situation that perhaps would have been different had it been the deciding factor between a better qualifying position than his 11th on the grid.
“Basically I think he crashed and after he looked back and he saw me,” the Aprilia rider explained. “He tried to [move out of the way], but I was coming very fast. Honestly, it was nothing because the lap was already gone to the yellow flags.
“Luckily, we didn’t hit each other. Luckily.”
However, with the session coming to an end and Miller having no reason to be touring back to the pits while the track remained live, the FIM MotoGP Stewards didn’t see him as completely blameless afterwards, hitting the Australian with a long-lap penalty for the race.
“In MotoGP Q2 at the exit of Turn 5,” they confirmed in a statement, “Miller was observed to be riding slow on line, disturbing rider #12 and causing a safety concern. This is the second time this season he has been observed riding slow on line and disturbing another rider. He has been given a Long Lap penalty for the MotoGP race at the Motul TT Assen.”
Arguably, however, Miller has escaped the more severe penalty some had expected to come his way, given that it is (as the stewards acknowledged) his second offence of the year, after being handed a three-place grid penalty for a similar move at the Argentine Grand Prix in April.
It also marks the second time in a week that he has been sanctioned by the stewards following a long-lap penalty he had to serve at the German Grand Prix last weekend for crashing under yellow flag conditions during FP4 at the Sachsenring.
