The Australian, who initially finished in eleventh place, will have to start from 14th, from the fifth row of the grid.
With this move, Pecco Bagnaia, his teammate in the official Ducati team, will gain a position and start 13th, just ahead of him.
If the workshop of the red motorcycles started the course with a changed foot, its passage through Termas de Río Hondo, at least for the moment, only anticipates an inertia for the worse.
Bagnaia, the theoretical leader of the project, is not able to find the point of the new Desmosedici projected for this 2022, a circumstance that even led the current runner-up to take a step back in the choice of engine, and resort to a derived version from that of 2021.
In Termas de Río Hondo, Bagnaia had a hard time due to the lack of grip on the rear, which led him to go through the first qualifying round (Q1). And from there he never moved.
Miller, for his part, was one of those who had enough with the two free sessions to sneak directly into Q2, even though a crash left him out of any chance of fighting for the top positions on the grid.
As if that were not enough, a three-position penalty imposed on the Townsville rider for crossing Quartararo’s path as the Frenchman tried to improve his times will see him start even further back.
“They just told me that I have a three-position penalty. I don’t know what they want from me,” Miller said, moments after learning of the sanction. “[After the crash] I changed bikes and suits to be more comfortable. Not that I tried to get in the middle of anyone to hinder. Anyway”, added the runner, one of those who usually complains the most about this type of behavior.
Ducati, who had 30 minutes to appeal this ruling, decided not to.
