Miller and Rabat target points in Argentina

Miller and Rabat target points in Argentina

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Jack Miller and Tito Rabat embark on a two-week South and North American MotoGP adventure in confident mood after a positive outcome to the recent season opener in Qatar.

Motivation is high after Miller and Rabat rebounded brilliantly from a difficult time in practice and qualifying to finish inside the points in Doha.

And another double top 15 finish is the clear target for this weekend’s trip to the fast and technical Termas de Rio Hondo track in Argentina.

Although both have previous experience of the Argentinian venue, this weekend’s encounter will be something of a journey into the unknown, with both eager to get to grips with new Michelin tyres for the first time at the 4.806km track.

Miller is optimistic he can battle closer to the top 10 this weekend after the Termas de Rio Hondo round provided the Australian with one of the biggest highlights of his rookie MotoGP campaign in 2015.

Some skilled and aggressive riding against vastly more experienced opponents saw Miller finish top Open class rider at the end of a memorable eight-rider fight for 12th spot.

Rabat has a winning pedigree in Argentina after taking the victory from pole position on his way to dominating the 2014 Moto2 World Championship.

A key goal for the 26-year-old Spaniard this weekend is to reduce the time gap to the leading group while gaining confidence and experience on his Honda RC213V machine.

Jack Miller
“I feel really positive coming to Argentina because I’ve been working really hard on my physical preparation. I was walking in the mountains for five hours and I feel already that I’ve got a lot more motion in my right ankle, which is getting better each day after my accident in January. This is a track I think that will be more suited to the Honda and I like it, so I’m here with high hopes and looking forward to putting to good use all the experience we gained in Qatar.”

Tito Rabat
“Qatar was a difficult MotoGP debut for me but I gained a lot of experience with the bike that will help me for the future. Of course we want to be finishing closer to the front but in Qatar I didn’t take any risks because I needed to stay on the bike and learn. Argentina is another difficult challenge because I’ve not ridden a MotoGP bike here. I’ve good memories of this track from 2014 and the Honda has a good record here too in MotoGP, so hopefully I can be stronger this weekend. I am looking forward to it and I will try and improve step-by-step. I will need to make as many laps as possible in practice to understand the different references on this track compared to Moto2, but the most important objective is to be more competitive than the last race both in terms of my final position and the time to the leading group.”