When the heavens open, plenty of MotoGP riders look to Jack Miller to make the tough decisions for them.
Wondering if a drying track is too dry for wet-weather tyres? Watch what Miller does. How long can you stay on slicks as the rain falls? Watch what Miller does. Where you find grip where there seemingly is none? Watch what Miller does.
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Time and time again throughout his 10-year premier-class career – his maiden win in drying conditions in the Netherlands in 2016, his astonishing pole on a damp track on slick tyres in Argentina in 2018, his win at a half-wet, half-dry French Grand Prix in 2021 despite having to serve two long-lap penalties for speeding in the pit lane – Miller has made the right calls at the right time to deliver big results.
On Sunday at Le Mans, site of his third MotoGP victory four years ago, he pulled the right reins once more. Only this time, he fluffed his lines.
Johann Zarco’s victory for Honda on Sunday – the first by a Frenchman in their home Grand Prix in 71 years – was an astonishing story that capped a day of pure sporting theatre, the 2025 instalment of the much-loved stop on the calendar going down as an instant classic.
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Yet it was a race Miller was in prime position to win when he crashed on lap six, just at the time where his pre-race decision to start on wet tyres on a track that the majority of the field felt was ready for slicks looked set to pay off big-time.
When Miller fell at the final corner of the 14-turn Le Mans circuit, Zarco – on the same wet-weather tyres as the Australian – was 11 seconds behind him. Every other rider who’d taken the brave decision to buck the tyre trend had either had second thoughts, had crashed out, or were so far behind as to be irrelevant.
Given what evolved over the final 20 laps, a first Yamaha win for Miller – in a season where he signed a one-year deal with the Japanese brand just to ensure he stayed on the grid for 2025 – was a distinct possibility. And he knew it.
“I’m gutted for the team,” a downcast Miller said afterwards, the din of 120,403 fans celebrating Zarco’s unlikely second career win almost drowning out his hushed tone.
“I was dumbfounded, devastated because we did everything right.”
A look at Miller’s race – which lasted all of eight minutes – shows he was very nearly correct.
TYRE CHOICE HAS MILLER IN THE BOX SEAT
With forecasts all week indicating Le Mans would be hit with a shower of rain right around the 2pm local start time, the entire 22-rider grid took off on the formation lap on slick tyres, which was quickly proven to be the wrong call when even tiptoeing through the turn three chicane became impossible, pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) almost crashing before he got to the corner.
All 22 riders returned to the pits for bikes with wet-weather tyres, causing the original start to be aborted, but there was a twist in the tale after a five-minute delay. The rain briefly abated as the field took its second formation lap, and 13 riders returned to the pits for their original, slick tyre-shod, bikes.
All 13 riders – including the front row of Quartararo and Marc and Alex Marquez – would be subjected to a double long-lap penalty for starting the warm-up lap from pit lane, but the penalty would be easily overcome if the track dried up given the pace advantage of a slick tyre over a wet on a drying track.
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Miller, who had qualified eighth, was one of nine riders to stick with his tyre choice. One place ahead of him, Marco Bezzecchi – on just his sixth Grand Prix start for Aprilia and with next to no wet-weather experience on the RS-GP bike after crossing from Ducati in the off-season – copied Miller. Zarco, 11th on the grid, employed the same strategy.
“I looked at Jack, because it was my first time in these conditions with Aprilia so I wasn’t really confident on what to do,” Bezzecchi said.
“Jack was with the rain tyres, and I know Jack in these conditions is so strong,” Zarco added.
When the race began, the difference between the slick-tyred riders and those on wets was immediately obvious. KTM’s Enea Bastianini, on slicks, ploughed into Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, on wets like Miller from sixth on the grid, at the opening chicane and skittled his former Ducati teammate into the path of Honda’s Joan Mir, who fell and very nearly took Zarco with him
Zarco ran across the gravel trap and stayed upright, but ended lap one in 17th place as Miller survived contact with KTM’s Brad Binder to sit in 11th.
Come lap two, when Miller was demoted by the slick-tyred Aprilia of Lorenzo Savadori and the Ducati of Fabio Di Giannantonio, he wondered if he’d made the right call even though he was now the best-placed rider on wet tyres, Bagnaia’s crash dropping him to the back, and Bezzecchi bailing out of his wet-tyre mimicry of Miller and pitting for slicks after just one lap.
“[Pramac Yamaha team director] Gino [Borsoi] told me before the race started there was more [rain] coming, and I trusted his word,” Miller said.
“When Savadori came past me on slicks, I was second-guessing but I was trusting it and praying to the weather gods that [the rain] was going to come on again.”
By lap three – Miller still in 13th, but eight seconds ahead of Zarco as the next-best rider on wets – those prayers looked set to go unanswered before the race soon took a turn.
A lap later, Quartararo – who had dropped from pole to fifth – dramatically crashed his Yamaha heavily at the final corner, with Binder going down immediately behind him, both riders on slicks.
As the drizzle picked up, race leader Marc Marquez immediately dropped his pace by two seconds. Miller had increased his advantage over Zarco to 9.4secs, and the race was coming to him.
On lap five, the rain now teeming down, Miller was as fast as Marquez and very clearly on the correct tyre for the conditions. Zarco was nowhere, 10 seconds behind him. A lap later, both Marquez brothers and Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, all ahead of Miller, all slithered into the pits for wets as Miller headed towards the final corner.
Then, disaster.
‘WE WERE SITTING PRETTY’: CRASH THROWS IT ALL AWAY
Heading into Raccordement, the final corner, Miller was 11 seconds ahead of Zarco when he suffered the same fate as Quartararo and Binder earlier in the race.
The final turn has a bumpy, patchwork asphalt, ground down by the Bugatti circuit layout used for MotoGP joining up with the Circuit de la Sarthe configuration used for the famous Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race, and as the rainwater pooled, Miller was on the floor and lost for answers.
“There was one point that I was like ‘if it [the rain] doesn’t come this lap, we’re kind of f**ked here’, but it did come,” he said.
“I could see where Marc [Marquez] and the leading group was by the [big screens], I knew when they were starting to come back towards me.
“It started raining a little bit more, like I was hoping. I came out of the last corner and stood the thing up and as soon as I started cracking [the throttle] it high-sided me, and that was it. It just stepped out and flipped me over the front.
“I don’t know about bumps [at that corner] but there’s a couple of different patches of asphalt, but it’s the same for everybody so I can’t complain about that.
“When you have a high-side like that, when you don’t really understand what the f**k went on, it hurts more than losing the front knowing what you’ve done if you push too hard.
“The last corner was getting more wet than the rest of the track, so it was a matter of riding with control through there and I felt like I was doing that. The data shows less throttle than the lap before … but she didn’t want to hang on any more.
“Johann was a few seconds behind me and we were sitting pretty, both him and myself, so it’s unfortunate.”
Zarco – notably exercising caution at the final corner for the rest of the race after seeing Miller tumble in front of him – cruised away to win by 19 seconds as the rain eased, but never by enough to prompt a move to slick tyres.
It was a victory that could have so easily been Miller’s.
Of the other six riders to employ the wet tyre strategy used by the Australian and the Frenchman, Honda’s Luca Marini and Yamaha’s Alex Rins followed Bezzecchi’s lead and pitted for slicks before having to pit again for wet tyres, throwing their races away.
Bagnaia was 16th and the last classified finisher after his lap one crash. Miller’s Pramac Yamaha teammate Miguel Oliveira, who ran as high as second, crashed – also at the final corner – from seventh on lap 19 of 26; when Miller fell, he was 12 seconds ahead of the Portuguese rider.
Honda wildcard rider Takaaki Nakagami, who qualified last, took minimal risks on his wet tyres and stayed the course to finish sixth, 59 seconds behind Zarco, but recording his best result since 2021.
Le Mans was Miller’s third consecutive pointless Grand Prix weekend, the stirring fifth place he took in Austin in round three fading more into the rear-view by the day.
In Qatar, ravaged by food poisoning, he crashed after a tyre vibration spat him off his YZR-M1 machine. In Spain, a piece of his bike’s bodywork came loose and sliced an electrical cable, seeing him limp to a bizarre retirement.
Those two non-scores hurt, but nothing like Sunday at Le Mans.
“The speed and pace was good, and the bike is working well so I’m happy with where we’re at,” he said.
“We just need to put some points in the bag …”.
Borsoi, after seeing his former rider Zarco take a second career win after the Frenchman broke through for the-then Pramac Ducati team in Australia in 2023, lamented what might have been.
“We walk away with nothing despite doing everything right,” he said.
“It hurts to think that when Jack crashed, he was 10 seconds ahead of Zarco. And we know how that ended.”
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