Jack Miller’s Argentine Motogup was compromised by a poor start. However, in hindsight, he might also prefer to stick to soft rear tires rather than switching to medium.
Only five riders chose the soft compound, but they performed better than expected. Franco Morbidelli took the podium along with Mark and Alex Marquez.
Monster Yamaha’s Alex Rins ran the soft against the team’s advice and finished as the top M1 rider in 11th place.
Meanwhile, Miller fell from 13th to 16th in the start before recovering and finishing two seconds behind Lyns after the weekend, causing all Yamaha riders to struggle with race pace.
Jack Miller is not sure about decisions
“The release at the start of the race wasn’t that bad, but there was a bit of wheel spin, maybe it was a bit too aggressive with the clutch or maybe the truck was pretty dirty.
“Fortunately, I was able to recover them pretty quickly, but we struggled with the grip.
“We chose the medium rear tires, and I don’t know if that’s the right decision, but it’s always easy to say that after the race.
“Anyway, I tried to be as kind as possible and find the rhythm.”
After climbing Raul Fernandez, Luca Marini, Enea Bastianini and Fermin Aldegua within the opening six laps, Miller’s progression was overtaken by Marini and later Maverick Vinales.
“On 11 laps, I felt like I was catching up with the other riders, but in the end, the tires were similarly deteriorated so I couldn’t move forward as much as I expected.
“Overall, it was a valuable learning weekend for us. Of course, I’m sure we’ll be back strongly in Texas in two weeks.”
Pramac team director Gino Volsoy felt that Miller’s start made the race even more difficult.
“Nottheless, he is to recover quickly at a consistent pace, secure some valuable points, and, more importantly, provide engineers with important data for further development.”
Miller – Top Yamaha with 13th place in early rider standings – was the only Pramac in Argentina to be on track after teammate Miguel Oliveira was injured during the sprint race.
Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez will replace Oliveira in the next round, held in Kota from March 28th to 30th.