Jack Miller: We can't take our eye off the ball during longest season

Jack Miller concluded pre-season MotoGP testing with 18th place (+0.810s) on the combined Mandalika timesheets.

Like Ducati Lenovo team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, Miller didn't grab headlines in terms of his one-off laps with the factory's new GP22 this winter, being ranked just 22nd and 14th at Sepang, then 6th, 20th and 15th at Mandalika.

But the Australian was more impressive for all important race-pace, setting an average lap time just a few tenths from the best - despite the interruption of an early fall - on the final day at Mandalika.

In total, last year's double MotoGP race winner completed 327 pre-season laps, 93 in Malaysia and then 234 in Indonesia.

"It was pretty hot and I had a long day, but we got through most of what I needed to do," Miller said on the final evening at Mandalika.

"Unfortunately I had a little crash on the first of my long runs, just putting the full tank - they need to take the fuel tank out, and once we did that, just the balance of the bike was a little bit off.

"I was just struggling quite a bit the first four or five laps, and I was struggling to hit my line, and eventually, I just went onto the dirty part of the track and laid it over. So that pissed me off a little bit, because it was just one of those crashes that didn't need to happen.

"But fortunately enough, I was able to come back in, get another bike, and basically regroup and go back out again. That was important for me just to get that race simulation under my belt."

After he re-joined, Miller's average lap time during the race simulation was a 1m 33.360s. That was faster than Bagnaia and fellow GP22 rider Luca Marini (VR46) but slightly slower than the LCR Hondas of Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez, plus Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo, who did their race simulations earlier in the day.

"To summarise the test, it's been a lot of work, a lot of fun, I've enjoyed the workload, but now it's time to go racing, which is the real fun part," Miller said.

Miller said the dusty and slippery Mandalika circuit had helped prepare for the Qatar opener on March 4-6.

"We had to be careful not to go off-line, but this allowed us to work for Qatar, where we will certainly find similar conditions because of the sand," he said.

"The race is the race, it's completely different [to testing] but I feel as ready as we can be there."

With less than half-a-second covering the top 13 in Malaysia and top 10 in Mandalika, picking a favourite for the opening round is far from easy.

"The field is so full this last couple of years that anyone can win come Qatar. For sure the Ducatis will be strong, but like I said Qatar is a whole different kettle of fish," Miller said

"I think you also need to look at the likes of Bastianini, he's been really fast through all the testing. Marini's been really quick. The list goes on… But I feel calm, focused on what we need to do."

The 27-year-old also knows he must avoid last season's rocky start and mid-season lapse, where he scored 14 out of a possible 75 points in the opening three rounds, then 15 out of a possible 100 around the halfway stage.

"Just try and keep my feet on the ground, keep focused and understand that we've still got a big plate of work ahead of us," Miller said of his approach to his year.

"The season is super long, with a lot more races [21], a lot more travelling, stuff like that. We just have to try to stay focused throughout the whole lot.

"We can't take our eye off the ball, I think that's going to be the most important thing to try to avoid the lapse in the mid-season or the rocky start," Miller said.

Miller finished a career-best fourth in last year's world championship, but was two places behind title runner-up Bagnaia.

Both are currently without a contract for 2023, but Ducati has indicated Bagnaia's extension could be announced in Qatar.