Jack Miller Feels Embarrassed After Austrian GP Lap Times Collapse
Jack Miller says he felt “quite embarrassed” about his own pace during the Jack Miller Austrian GP weekend at the Red Bull Ring. The Yamaha rider’s lap times dropped away badly in the closing stages of the race. He didn’t try to soften how bad it felt afterwards.
“It’s not a day I’m happy, or even want to think about. I’m quite embarrassed,” Jack Miller said.
It’s rare to hear a rider speak so plainly about a difficult afternoon. That honesty gives a sense of just how far off the pace Miller felt by the end of the race.
Miller pointed to one clear moment when things fell apart on track.
“I couldn’t do anything from about lap 13-14 onwards. The bike was spinning in a straight line, can’t do f**k all with it,” he said.
Grip disappeared at that point in the race, and his rhythm never returned for the remaining laps.
Lap Times Collapse and Race Winner Gaps at Spielberg
The numbers show just how steep the decline was. Miller had been running in the mid-to-high 1m32s, solid pace for Spielberg, before his final five laps slipped away to 1m38s. His very last lap of the race came in at 1m40.225s, a huge gap from where he started.
He eventually crossed the line in 21st place. That left him 20 seconds behind teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu, and almost a full minute off race winner Pedro Acosta. Gaps of that size are rare in MotoGP, where the field is usually separated by tenths rather than seconds.
“Yeah, it’s embarrassing doing 1m1.38, it’s f****g Bagger times, but at the end of the day, here to do a job and today the job was 21st f****g position,” Miller said.
That was Miller’s own honest verdict on a difficult Jack Miller Austrian GP, delivered without looking for excuses.
Rear Tyre Carcass Changes and Yamaha Electronic Issues
Two technical factors sit behind this result, and both are worth setting out plainly. Michelin brought a stiffer rear tyre carcass to Spielberg. It’s a construction the supplier only uses at a handful of rounds each season, rather than every weekend on the calendar.
That stiffer carcass behaves differently under load compared with the tyre most riders use at other rounds. Alongside that, Yamaha dealt with electronic issues right through the entire Austrian Grand Prix weekend, from practice through to the race itself.
Miller didn’t lean on either point as an excuse. He simply described what happened out on track. We’ll take the same approach here, since nothing beyond those two factors has been confirmed.
Commitment to Finish Ahead of Upcoming Grand Prix Schedule
Even with no pace left in the bike, Miller kept riding rather than pulling into the garage early to end his afternoon.
“I’m not a guy that parks it. I was out there to do a job, the race isn’t over until it’s over. You never know if a red flag can fly or whatever. Better off being in it than not being in it,” he said.
It’s the kind of attitude Yamaha fans will recognise from him. It matters more with the championship still running and points on offer at every remaining round. We’ve covered his wider situation before, including our career assessment on his next move and the WorldSBK agreement he’s reached with Yamaha for 2027.
For now, the focus stays on finishing races and taking whatever points are on offer, even on a weekend as tough as this one. Full details of his post-race comments were first reported in Motorsport.com’s report on the pace drop. With the grand prix schedule rolling straight into the next round, Miller and Yamaha will hope for a return to the pace he showed before that final stint went wrong.
