Miller and Rabat endure baking hot qualifying at Misano

Miller and Rabat endure baking hot qualifying at Misano

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Jack Miller and Tito Rabat endured blazing sun and baking hot track conditions in today's qualifying session at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

The track temperature soared to 43 degrees during QP1 at the 4.2km circuit near the seaside resort of Cattolica on the Adriatic Coast. 

Miller made a late surge to secure 17th on the grid while Rabat will start 19th for tomorrow's 28-lap race. 

Miller posted his best time of 1'33.847 in the closing minute of qualifying after an earlier time was cancelled because he exceeded the track limits. 

However the 21-year-old Australia was dissatisfied with his performance as he continued to struggle with front-end grip on a hot track despite the introduction of two new Michelin front tyres. 

Miller's qualifying time improved by just three tenths of a second over the much cooler FP1 session on Friday morning.  

Rabat also struggled with front grip issues although he improved to an impressive 14th in the FP4 session. However the former Moto2 World Champion could not replicate this in qualifying  

A continuation of the hot and humid conditions is predicted for the race and will place a premium on the endurance of both riders and tyres for the 13th round of the MotoGP World Championship.

Jack Miller:  17th  – 1'33.847
“This has not been an easy day, I worked my butt off to end up only 17th on the grid. We tried everything with the bike set up, we basically turned it inside out looking for an improvement but overall the feeling didn't change that much despite some big setting changes.  My laps were all within 0.3s and we really need to try and find something for the race and try and bring it home in the points. I did my fastest time at the end of the session but the potential of myself and the team is much better than this.”  

Tito Rabat:  19th  – 1'34.302 
“We've struggled a little to get a good feeling with the new front here at Misano, with the problem becoming worse as the track temperature rises. We changed the balance of the bike for FP4 and this brought a definite improvement, allowing me to close the gap to the fast guys. Unfortunately I didn't get the run I wanted in qualifying, we need to look at our strategy for this to see if we can improve, but today was a much more positive day than yesterday and I feel more confident going into the race tomorrow.”  

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“It was a difficult qualifying and I was little surprised because a good rhythm in FP4 was only 0.7s from the top.  Jack tried to push but he still has a problem with the front of the bike, it is much like he had at the beginning of the season and at the moment the solutions are not clear. The qualifying session was a little bit messy for Tito who waited until the end rather than do his own thing.”