Australian rider Jack Miller looks back on his first season in the MotoGP

By Joshua Low Twenty-year-old Queenslander Jack Miller made the step up to the MotoGP earlier this year with the LCR Honda team and believes he can only get better. Miller, runner up in last year’s Moto3 World Championship, is now using an ‘open specification’ bike with the team after joining at the start of 2015. He lies in 18^th position overall, but third in the Open Rider Classification for the MotoGP following last weekend’s race at Sepang in Malaysia. The level of competition in the tournament was something which he found surprising coming into his rookie season this year. “All the bikes seem to be on a similar level and everyone is riding really well. “I think it’s the most competitive year in the last 10 years [of the MotoGP] so it’s been difficult but we’ve been doing the best we can and it’s been up and down that’s for sure. “But I’ve really liked it and I’m looking forward to taking what we’ve learnt this season and [using it with] a better bike and trying to do a better job for next year,” he said. LCR Honda owner and director Lucio Cecchinello, whose team also includes British rider Cal Crutchlow, who finished fifth overall in the race at Sepang, says the season has not been simple. “We are the first independent team on the grid and we are battling with the [biggest] manufacturers in the world. “We [had some] difficulties during the middle of the season and now at the end of the season I would say that we are more in line with our expectations,” he said. Cecchinello believes the team as a whole can push on to greater heights next year and hopes to compete with the best. “We [will definitely] restart with the same motivation and same goal for next year, [with our goal] to be just behind Rossi, Lorenzo, Marquez and Pedrosa.”     Miller and Cecchinello speak of LCR Honda’s 2015 season [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63-3bIKwgrg]