Miller’s Doha qualifying near-miss was “scary”

Quartararo was trailing Miller in the closing stages of Q2 on Saturday evening when the Ducati rider had a massive moment at Turn 3 that wasn’t caught on camera.

The Yamaha rider says it was much more aggressive than the big moment Miller had during FP2 on Friday, but the Australian still managed to put his Desmosedici fourth ahead of Quartararo.

“I’m happy with fourth, but I had another massive moment,” said Miller. “It was probably even bigger than yesterday, in Turn 3. Fabio saw it quite live. And then the next lap [I] rolled out and nearly didn’t make another lap because time was running out.

“When I went through it again it sort of let go when I went through there. Grip wasn’t fantastic this evening; that more or less was why I was pissed. Just the moment and not being able to do the laps like I was able to do in the beginning.”

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Explaining his version of events, Quartararo added: “About Jack, I think it’s the scariest moment I’ve ever seen in MotoGP. When I saw that he improved the lap later, I can say – to be political – [he has] big balls.

“For me, he’s just amazing how he can reset and make that lap time at the end. So, he is the hero of today because he was really close to having a big one today and it was really scary [watching] from behind. Yesterday’s was nothing compared to what he had today! He made that but three or four times longer, and shaking faster.

“So, it’s a shame it’s not on TV because I think it’s one of the biggest saves I’ve ever seen.”

Quartararo was unhappy with the feeling of his bike on Friday in lower grip conditions, but says he made a step in his riding and believes “I can fight for the win” on Sunday. He was also involved in the pole fight in the latter stages, but admits he made a mistake with gear ratios for qualifying.

“Yes, we made a big step,” he said when asked if he had progressed with his Yamaha on Saturday. “More in the riding, but unfortunately in qualifying I had a shorter gearbox, and when you have one GP, five days of test [at one track] you have your references everywhere – in braking by the revs.

“I’m a rider who rides a lot with the revs, when I shift the gears I’m not even looking at the lights. I know when I need to change [gear]. But today in the strong points, like Turn 1, Turn 4, Turn 7, I had the [rev] lights so early and I braked too early.

“So, we made a small mistake going with a shorter gearbox.”