Miller takes a gamble, 'main goal' achieved

Jack Miller took 'a bit of gamble' by fitting the soft rear tyre for Sunday's German MotoGP and, while it 'didn't really work out', the Australian moved to the top of the Independent standings heading into the summer break.

Miller is now three points clear of Fabio Quartararo and Cal Crutchlow after a sixth-place finish at the Sachsenring, where he spent the entire race battling with factory Ducati team riders Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso.

"I wanted a little bit more but it is what it is, today we did the maximum of what I feel we had," said the Pramac rider.

"We tried something different, a little bit of a gamble [soft tyre], it didn't really work out for us but we need to try these things being a satellite bike.

"We were the first person home on a soft tyre and I was just riding to manage that tyre the whole race.

"I was saving the tyre especially down through Turns 6-7, trying not to spin there. That's where I was losing the most time but I was able to catch a lot of it back in the rolling corners, like Turns 1-2, that sort of area.

"But I was just losing a lot in acceleration down there because you couldn't really put any force through the tyre, because it would overheat that left side. With the cooler temperatures today I just thought I'd try something different. It wasn't ideal but we made it work.

"I probably could have put a few moves on towards the end of the race, but I just wanted to bring it home, not T-Bone anyone or crash out."

The result means Miller moves ahead of Quartararo for seventh in the points standings, but with German Grand Prix podium finisher Crutchlow closing in.

"Now we’re back at the top of the Independent championship. That's the main goal for this season and it's nice to go into the summer break leading that, even if it is only by three points over Crutch and Fabio," Miller said.

"Consistency is going to be the key to [winning] that I think and three DNFs in the first half of the season is not the way I would have liked to have started the year, but it's nice to end on a positive note like this.

"The last couple of grands prix haven't been the easiest for us so to come away with a sixth today, when only one guy crashed out ahead, I'll take it.

"This is not particularly a track that the Ducati works well around and we all finished within half a second, we were bumper-to-bumper over the line. So I think we all did the maximum we could."

Fourth place Petrucci and fifth place Dovizioso, also on the latest GP19, both raced the hard rear tyre.