Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Jack Miller rode a carefully judged wet weather race to finish eighth in today’s rain hit Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Australian wet track master claimed his fifth top ten finish of the season so far after starting 14th on the fifth row.

Miller made an early charge to settle in tenth despite not finding the optimum set-up for a wet track during practice and qualifying.

After a mid-race battle with Alvaro Bautista for eighth Miller elected to bring his Honda RC213V home as the first Honda finishing one second clear of Pol Espargaro.

The race start was delayed by 20 minutes because of heavy rain and reduced to 19 laps.

Miller’s teammate Tito Rabat finished a morale-boosting18th having openly admitted that he struggled in the rain during practice and qualifying.

Rabat’s rookie season in MotoGP continues to be a steep learning curve and the tricky conditions at the Sepang International Circuit and completing the race distance was another step in that process.

For the season finale at Valencia in two weeks Rabat is hoping for a weekend of settled weather to consolidate his first season in the premier class.

Jack Miller: 8th
“I am always looking for more but in the conditions today I can take this result, it was pretty good considering the really tricky conditions, it wasn’t easy to stay on the bike. All weekend I had not been comfortable with our set-up in the wet so I’m reasonably happy to bring it home in the top ten and be the first Honda rider. Now it’s off to Valencia and, hopefully, a strong finish to the season.”

Tito Rabat:  18th
“Considering the disaster of qualifying in the rain and my struggle for confidence on a wet track it is very satisfying to make a good step in the race. Completing the race distance in difficult conditions gives me a lot of experience for the future. Today I knew my limit especially with the lean angle and I did not go over it even though I would like to be closer to the front.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“The target was to finish the race for both riders and for Jack to be in the top ten and first Honda in these conditions is good result. For sure we did not have the set-up for Jack at 100% but overall I’m happy to finish the three flyaway races with this result. For Tito it was a difficult weekend and although he finished the race we need to look at what we can do for the final race in Valencia to help boost his feeling to be more competitive in MotoGP.”