Miller delights home fans: “Awesome to be fighting at the front”

That means Miller is comfortably through to Qualifying 2, guaranteeing him a top 12 on the grid, having felt more comfortable with every lap around the Phillip Island circuit on KTM's new carbon fibre chassis.

“It feels awesome to be back fighting at the front. Fingers crossed, we can give these [fans] a good show tomorrow,” Miller told MotoGP.com.

“I’m feeling good and the bike’s working really well... Everything we did to the bike, we were able to make it a little bit more comfortable and find a little bit more speed.

“I never felt like I lost it, I just felt like all these other guys were able to up their game and I wasn't able to keep up there for a few races,” the Australian said of his mid-season lull in results.

“But I've definitely been finding more speed, more confidence in these last couple of races and today showed we've got some decent pace. So I feel if we keep working this way, it'll come. But it's nice to be back in that top three, even if it is on a Friday, and put us in good shape for tomorrow's race.

“The rear grip we have been able to find in the last couple of GPs has been really helping us out here and I’ve been saying it all year: the way the bike is through those high-speed changes of direction is pretty agile and I’m able to find the line quite well.

“It is working pretty good so far so let’s keep that trajectory going.”

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Miller, who will be chasing his first podium since Jerez, \also revealed that his hot lap was far from perfect.

“I kind of fired it in quite hot into Turn 6 on my best lap. Lost a little bit of time. Turn 2 as well, had Jorge on the inside so I couldn't quite get over the kerb as much as I would like.

“Even Turn 10, it was quite tricky as you saw a few bikes go down and I kind of feel like I fumbled a little bit through there. So it's never a perfect lap. But I feel like we got a little bit left to tidy up.”

While practice took place in perfect weather, conditions are forecast to deteriorate on Saturday, followed by gale-force winds on Sunday.

That has prompted a revised race weekend schedule, with the main grand prix race swapping places with the Sprint on Saturday afternoon.