"No Consistency" as Jack Miller Gets Two Penalty Points

Jack Miller has been handed two penalty points for his last-lap clash with Alex Marquez, which caused Miller, Marquez and Bastianini to crash.

The Red Bull KTM rider made a very late lunge up the inside of the leading group at Scarperia, but clipped the back of Miguel Oliveira’s Mahindra, which forced him to stand the bike up and into the path of Alex Marquez. Marquez ran into the back of Miller, and the two riders fell, taking out Enea Bastianini with them.

After the incident, Miller accepted full blame for the crash. “I went in there a little bit too aggressive, trying to overtake too many people at once,” Miller said. “There was a bit of room there, and I went for it, but Oliveira closed the door. I touched his rear tire, stood it up and almost had it, then Marquez ran in to me from behind. It was completely my fault.”

Though he was happy to admit blame, he was unhappy with being given two penalty points for it, and made his objections very clear to the members of Race Direction.

“I’m surprised I didn’t get any more points, after I started swearing at them. I was waiting for the third one to be added on there,” he joked.

Miller’s main objection was a lack of consistency in when and how points were awarded. There have been several last-lap incidents so far this season, which have gone unpunished.

“That was my argument to them. I said there’s no consistency whatsoever. It’s a joke,” he said.

The penalty points would not change his approach to future races, he said. If the same situation were to occur in the future, he would still try to make a pass.

If it happens again, “I go for it again, but I do it a little bit smarter,” Miller said. “If you see a gap, you go for it. If you don’t do that, then what the hell are you doing out there? I’m here to win races.”

Miller said he could not afford to make any more mistakes this season. “It’s my one mistake for the year,” he told us. “Like Casey Stoner said, like many others said, you can have one chance for the year, one false move. That’s mine done, now I have to get back on the horse and do what we’ve done in the other five races.”

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.