Miller: Rock 'n' roll home podium ranks above Assen win

Four days after the eutrophic celebrations that followed Jack Miller's home podium at Phillip Island and the young Australian's voice was almost back to normal, at Sepang on Thursday.

The Pramac Ducati rider had already been sounding hoarse when he arrived in parc ferme, having been screaming in his helmet as he was cheered by the fans throughout the slowdown lap.

A memorable podium ceremony followed, then a 'few' drinks and resulting hangover, after which Miller finally took the antibiotics he had been prescribed by the Clinica Mobile.

"I was pretty much off Cloud Nine come Monday morning with the hangover, I don't bounce as good as I used to!" Miller smiled. "It was bad. I had no voice Monday, no voice Tuesday. People were coming up to me at the airport trying to talk and I was [makes squeaking sound].

"She's on the way back up now and I've got my antibiotics from the Clinica. I was already sick before the race, I literally went 2 hours before the race and got on a nebulizer. So [the Clinica] were like, 'here's some antibiotics, don't take them until after the race'.

"Sure enough, after the race, screaming, carrying on like a pork chop, drank 1000 beers. Then didn't take my antibiotics until Monday morning. I was trying to eat anything that would make me feel better by then, panadol, berocca, whatever. But we survived! It was an amazing feeling."

Indeed, Miller ranks the home podium above even his wet MotoGP victory at Assen in 2016.

"For me it was better than Assen. The atmosphere. Honestly, as far as I could see from the podium the track was full, pit lane was full, people were hanging off the guards on the pit lane wall, they were sat up on top of it," he said.

"The atmosphere was nuts, everyone was screaming. I've never seen Phillip Island like that. Like a rock 'n' roll concert is the only way I can put it!"

Miller will now seek a fifth podium of the season at Sepang this weekend. Among his first tasks in Friday's FP1 will be to get a feel for the grip after some track modifications.

"The [February] test was good here, but that was the start of the season, so we're back again. We'll see how far our settings have come," he said. "The track's got a little bit of adjustment, I saw they resurfaced Turns 1 and 2, and then also Turn 12, so that's good, because they definitely needed it.

"Especially at Turn 12, it [the bump] was getting unsafe. And Turn 1 had some waves around it from cars. But we'll have to wait and see, because sometimes when they do patch jobs like this, it can create more drama than was there before.

"Generally they've been pretty good here, so we'll have to wait and see. I drove round the outside of the track this morning just to have a look at the areas they've done. I didn't see any more wet springs, let's say, like we had before, water pissing out of the bottom of the track! So it's a positive thing, the track keeps getting better and better with age.

"I'm feeling good for the weekend. It should be interesting, we'll probably have to get a decent wet setting as we've seen in the past here, generally it always rains here on Sunday at 3pm when we're sat on the grid…"

Miller is eighth in the world championship, ten points behind Valentino Rossi.