Jack Miller concludeꦯd pre-season MotoGP testing with 18th placཧe (+0.810s) on the combined Mandalika timesheets.

Like Ducati Lenovo team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, Miller didn't grab headlines in terms of🔯 his one-off laps with the factory's new GP22 this winter, being ranked just꧋ 22nd and 14th at Sepang, then 6th, 20th and 15th at Mandalika.

But the Australian was more impressive for all important race-pace, setting an average lap time just a few tenths from the best - despite the interruption of an early fall - on the fi♊nal d൩ay at Mandalika.

In total, last year's double MotoGP race winner completed 327 pre-season ꦡlaps, 93 in Malaysia and th♎en 234 in Indonesia.

"It was pretty hot꧃ and I had a long day, but we got through most of what I needed to do," Miller said on the final evening at M♔andalika.

"Unfortunately I had a little crash on the first of my long runs, just putting the full tank - t🌃hey need to take the fuel tank out, and once we did that, just the balanc🐻e of the bike was a little bit off.

"I was just struggling quite a bit the first four or five lap🌊s, and I was struggling to hit my line, and eventually, I just went onto the dirty part of the track and laid it over. So tha🧸t pissed me off a little bit, because it was just one of those crashes that didn't need to happen.

"But fortunately enough, 𝐆I was able to come back in, get another bike, and basically regroup and go ꧑back out again. That was important for me just to get that race simulation under my belt."

After he re-joined, Miller's average lap time during the race simulation was a 1m 33.360s. That was faster than Bagnaia and fellow GP22 rider Luca Marini (VR46) but slightly slower than the LCR Hondas of Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez, plus Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo, who did their race ♉simulations earlier in the day.

"To summarise the test, i🍌t's been a lot of work, a lot o🅘f fun, I've enjoyed the workload, but now it's time to go racing, which is the real fun part," Miller said.

♌Miller said the dusty and slippery Mandalika circuit had helped prepare for the Qatar opener on March 4-6.

"We had to be careful not to go off-line, but this allowed us to work for Qatar, where we will certainly find similar conditions because of the s🍰and," he said.

"The r✱ace is the race, it's complet♐ely different [to testing] but I feel as ready as we can be there."

With less than half-a-seco♈nd covering the top 13 in Malaysia and 𓄧top 10 in Mandalika, picking a favourite for the opening round is far from easy.

"The field is so full this last couple of years that anyone can win come Qatar. For sure t🦄he Ducatis will be strong, but like I said Qatar is a whole different kettle of fish," Miller sa𝔍id

"I think you also need to look at the likes of Bastianini, he's been really fast through all the testing. Marini's been really quick. The list goes on… But I feel c൩alm, focused on what we need to do."

The 27-year-old also knows he must avoid last season's rocky start and♛ mid-season l🗹apse, where he scored 14 out of a possible 75 points in the opening three rounds, then 15 out of a possible 100 around the halfway stage.

"Just try and keep🐻 my feet on the ground, keep focused and understand that we've still got a big plate of work ahead of us," Miller said of his approach to his year.

"The season𝓰 is super long, with a lot more races [21], a lot more travelling, stuff like that. We just have to tr🌞y to stay focused throughout the whole lot.

"We can't take our eye off the ball, I think that's going to be the most important thing to try to avoidꦛ the lapse in the mid-se💞ason or the rocky start," Miller said.

Miller finished a career-best fourth in last ye🔥ar's world championship, but was two places behind title runner-up Bagnaia.

Both are currently without a contract for 2023༺, but Ducati has indicated Bagnaia's extension could be announced in Qatar.