Jack Miller’s hopes for a slow turnaround in Qatar were destroyed as a “violent” rear-end vibration crashed from MotoGP on Sunday under Rusail’s floodlights.
The Australian struggled throughout the weekend, crashing twice while battling food poisoning on Friday, and competed in Pramac Yamaha on the 16th.
Miller temporarily took the position early on Sunday before being passed again by former KTM teammate Blood Binder.
The #43 race looked stable and he had regained his rhythm until lap 22nd till everything was clear.
“It was the best I felt all weekend – the bike worked well until it suddenly wasn’t,” he said. “My rhythm was strong and I felt quite comfortable coming back to the previous group.”
Miller previously spoke of his relief, who left the extreme chatter that cornered his final season at KTM.
But the chatter came back and bothered him on Sunday.
Jack Miller: “The bike suddenly started vibrating violently.”
“I switched the map and then just before the crash, I got 15 turns with what could have been my best lap and the bike suddenly started vibrating violently in the rear.
“I had to slow down, but my knee time was 1’53.9.”
The disaster then hit several corners.
“Martin overtook me and I chased him into turn 1, but at turn 2, as soon as I leaned in, I lost the front,” he said.
“I managed to keep the bike with my elbow, but once I pushed it deep it started to vibrate again, I was offline in the dirty part of the truck.
“The data showed very clearly that something had changed from one lap to the next, and why we don’t know.
“The tires looked fine. Everything was fine so we need to understand more about what happened.
“To be honest, it ended the way the whole weekend was on. I’m happy to be able to head to Jerseys. I think this bike will work out there.”
A similar fate met his teammate Augusto Fernandez. Augusto Fernandez crashed on four laps on turn 4, bringing the Yamaha team with a double DNF.
“It was a tough weekend,” admitted team director Gino Bolsoy.
“Our engineers analyze the data and fully understand what happened. They have a week’s break before Jeres and they have homework.”