The first day of practice and the special nature of Phillip Island did throw a number of interesting names into the mix. Shock of the day was Jack Miller, the Australian taking a brilliant fifth place in FP1, then only narrowly missing out on the top ten in FP2. His fast time may have been set on a soft tire, but even his race pace on the medium (the hardest rear for the Open class, softest for the Factory Option riders) is very good. Miller was lapping around the 1'31.0 mark, with regular dips into the 1'30s.
Clearly, racing at home has made a huge difference to the Australian, but there are more factors at play. Probably the biggest influence has been Alberto Puig, who has taken over the mentoring of Miller at the behest of HRC. Puig is imposing the discipline and work ethic required to compete at the highest level, and this is starting to pay off. At a track like Phillip Island, the rider really can make the difference, regardless of bike characteristics or even set up. Casey Stoner demonstrated this irrefutably by harrying both an ill-handling Ducati and a sweet-handling Honda around the Island to domination, the gap to the rest pretty much constant regardless of the bike he was on.
Having a background in dirt track helps too. That's what Stoner and Miller both grew up doing, and the same is true of Nicky Hayden, the man who finished in twelfth, directly behind Miller. A fast track with a lot of left handers, where you spend a lot of time sliding and spinning up the rear is right up Hayden's street, and it shows. The American held the lap record around the circuit for five years, from 2008 until they resurfaced the track in 2013. Hayden's race pace is good too, pretty close to Miller's. Podiums may be out of the question, but as it looks now, both Hayden and Miller could be in the second group battling for fifth or sixth position."
https://motomatters.com/analysis/2015/1 ... _on_d.html
And it hasn't even rained - yet
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