Jack Miller will start Sunday's Japanese MotoGP from sixth o𝕴n the gri𝔉d, as the top Ducati, and with his sights set on a podium finish in Sunday's race.

The Pramac Ducati rider is renowned for his skills in changeable conditions and was duly the first to try slicks in the final practice sessio🌞n.

The Austꦦralian was briefly fastest before others on slicks pushed him down to eleventh in FP4. But Miller later revealed that he was on old soft tyres, with one eye🔴 on gathering information for the end of what is expected to be a dry race on Sunday.

"We did a lot of laps yesterday on the soft tyres. Then this afternoon [in FP4], everyone else went out on brand new soft tyres and I went out on softs with 17 laps on, just to put a few more laps on them to really understand what they are going to do in the race," explained Miller, who lost much of the fully wet FP3 session due to a technical issue. "So we know where we💯're at, and I'm looking forward to 🎐it."

Miller joined his rivals on new soft rubber for qualifying and felt he had the pace to challenge Marc Marquez for pole position, but was▨ unable to put all the sectors together.

"Second row is decent, we'll take it. But I felt I had a bit more in the tank today. I was putting in good sectors, but I just couldn't seem to string them together - whether it was myself running a little bit widജe, or traffic, it just didn't come together," he said.

"I really felt I could have challenged Marc today with our lap times, especially in those conditions. A little bit disappointed with that, but likꦍe I said, second row, inside into Turn 1, should be good as long as I don't turn the bike off on the grid again!

"I thi𝔉nk we're 𓆏in a great position for tomorrow's race. The bike's working really well, the team and I have done our homework, so I think we've got a podium challenge in us."

Miller has been on the rostrum three🦄-times💟 so far this season.

Factory Du🥃cati Team riders Andrea Dovizios𓂃o and Danilo Petrucci will start just behind Miller in seventh and eighth.