Jack Miller: 'Marc passed me when my bike got lost' in Misano MotoGP Sprint

Jack Miller knew it would be a tough task to hold off Marc Marquez during Saturday’s San Marino MotoGP Sprint race.

Marquez was starting an out-of-sync ninth after crashing in qualifying, with Miller leapfrogging ahead of the Aragon winner as he shot from 12th to 7th on the opening lap.

The Australian then kept Marquez at bay for half of the 13-lap race, until the KTM rider suffered an unusual electronic glitch.

MotoGP machines are programmed with different engine settings for each corner of a race track and Miller suspects his RC16 ‘got lost’ during the braking zone into Turn 8.

“Just as I swapped the map on the straight, I had a little electronic issue or something," said Miller.

“Going into the braking zone for Turn 8 it was like the system got lost. 

"It went full engine brake halfway through the braking zone. Then it clutched itself, free wheeled almost, and snapped out of it.

“That was when Marc was able to get past.

“I felt like I was riding quite protective and managing my braking markers pretty well to try and keep him behind. Obviously, he had better pace but I was just trying to do what I could.

“Then halfway through that braking zone, she went ‘brmmm’. It almost feels like the thing’s seizing a little bit. 

"It's done it a few times and it’s like the [throttle] butterflies shut all the way, completely closed. And then it realises how much [rear wheel] lock you’ve actually got and snaps out of it really aggressively.

“That was enough to put me a little bit wide and left the door well and truly open for [Marc] to come on through.”

Miller then remained in eighth place, finishing a fraction from team-mate Binder and just ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

After his earlier defensive riding, Miller found himself limited by front tyre pressure issues when trying to go on the attack.

“Every time I kind of got close to Brad, I'd have some decent locks on the front,” he said. “Obviously the temperature out there was pretty high and running a very similar pace, you kind of get stuck in that mode, I guess you can say.

“But I enjoyed it. No mistakes, just trying to hang in there and see how long we could sort of stick it out with those boys. And that was a lot of fun. We were definitely pushing the whole way through.”