Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller benefitted from a COTA lesson from MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez during FP2.
The Australian rider ended the opening day of free practice in fourth place, just under a tenth and a half off the fastest time of the day, set by Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales.
Miller was a beneficiary of some good luck when a small change in the pits saw him come back out on track right in front of the ‘King of COTA’.
"It just worked out great," Miller explained.
"I didn't even plan on getting in behind him. We swapped the shock for the middle run and it didn't really work out, so we swapped it back and then we did a run and got out on time.
"As the boys were taking the tyre warmers off I peeled out and I saw Tito waiting there and thought, 'surely he isn't waiting for me' and I looked left and saw, no, no, he's waiting for Marc.”
Miller explained where his laps behind Marquez helped the most, explaining: "It was good to get a couple of laps behind him, just to pick up some of the tips that he was doing like six, seven, eight, he uses a lot of partial throttle around here.
"It's more like accelerate just a little bit, and then don't even bother grabbing the brakes again, let the bike sort of roll rather than making the bike do a lot of this. I think that's one of the keys to going fast around here."