Yamaha endured one of its worst MotoGP weekends of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, where poor grip, heavy wheelspin, electronics issues and severe rear-tyre wear on Michelin’s reinforced casing left Jack Miller and his teammates shocked and embarrassed at the Red Bull Ring. Neither the factory team nor Pramac scored points, and Fabio Quartararo was Yamaha’s best finisher in 17th after qualifying ninth.
Miller’s race unravelled after he moved ahead of Franco Morbidelli and Pol Espargaro early on, but by about lap 13 or 14 he said he was struggling to keep the bike from spinning in a straight line. He said the pace had fallen into “Bagger times,” and he chose to keep riding rather than retire. Miller finished 21st and last, 1m 7.530s behind winner Pedro Acosta.
Miller said his rear Michelin tire degraded heavily in the closing laps, dropping his pace from the mid-to-high 1m32s to 1:40.225 on the final lap and leaving him unable to use full throttle on Spielberg’s straights. He called the performance embarrassing and said Yamaha had the worst degradation among the bikes affected by the special high-temperature-resistant tire compound. Yamaha riders occupied four of the last five finishing places, with Morbidelli 18th, Alex Rins 19th and Toprak Razgatlioglu 20th. Miller said Yamaha could return to standard tires at Motegi, but he expected similar problems again at Mandalika when the stiffer casing returns.
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