Jack's home heartache after early exit in Australia 🇦🇺

Hi everyone,

Well, I've had better Sundays, that's for certain ... it definitely wasn't the day I had planned, but they were the cards we were dealt today. I got pretty winded in the crash with Alex (Marquez) but I feel alright – pretty bruised, but we'll be right.

Me and Alex have obviously had our battles in the past, but there's no reason to have any hard feelings … what's there to have hard feelings about? We're all out there trying to do our best and sure, I understand he might have got a little bit carried away, but we've all made mistakes. He's as devastated as I am with not finishing the race. But with it being my first home Grand Prix after three years, that's definitely not the way I wanted to finish it.

I was mid-corner, just about to release the brakes and get on the gas, and got a front wheel to the middle of my spine. Not much I could do about that ... one minute I was looking at the back of (Ducati rider Marco) Bezzecchi's bike, and the next I was seeing stars.

It's hard to say how much further up the order I would have got, so I can't sit here and say I would have won today because those boys rode really good at the front, but I had a bike that I could challenge them, at least. I felt mega and got a decent start, and began plugging my way through. I got to fourth and figured I'd let the race come to me, and the boys out front … especially (Ducati's Jorge) Martin – I could see he was pushing it pretty hard through Turn 3 and Turn 12, really letting it dance. There's no longevity in that around here, so I was saving a bit of tyre in the last corner and Turn 3 and making up what I was losing in braking at Turn 4 and Turn 10, I was feeling really good from Turn 9 into 10. So who knows where I would have ended up. Didn't happen, so you can't be thinking about it.

Let's look at the positives. A lot of people have travelled – not only my family, families all around this joint – to see an Aussie do good. You definitely feel like you let them down a bit, but it's been so awesome to have MotoGP back at Phillip Island. The home support I got here was amazing, a bit surreal to be honest. There were so many fans, the grandstands were busy – I mean, the Aussie fans had waited three years, and you could feel that everywhere we went. To say you don't notice the extra pressure would be a lie, you definitely do, but it's a positive pressure because they all want you to do well. I mean, it's a privilege to have that, it's not something you shy away from because you want to make people happy.

I had a huge honour over the weekend when the circuit re-named Turn 4 here in my honour, so it's now Miller Corner. I mean, just saying that – it's kind of funny because Ruby and I were even discussing that earlier on in the year, just on a whim, saying 'imagine how cool having a corner named after you would be?'. So when Andrew Fox from Linfox (the circuit owners) told me, I was just speechless. Over the moon. It's maybe the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me! I mean, it's at my favourite track, where my family has always sat and watched over the years – there's no words to describe it. It's unofficially been Miller Corner for years, but now it's real!

To have part of that track named after me like Wayne (Gardner), Mick (Doohan) and Casey (Stoner) – I'm not even in the same league as those guys, so that's a little bit embarrassing. But it's amazing, more than I could ever dream of. When I'm some old bloke watching on TV when the commentators say 'here they come into Miller Corner' … yeah, that'll be phenomenal. To end up finishing in the gravel there … a bit of irony, you have to admit.

It's been a hectic couple of weeks – getting married one weekend and having your home GP the next – so I reckon I need a couple of quiet ones before Malaysia next weekend. But for everyone who watched, who came out – the biggest crowd here for 10 years – thanks. The selfies, handshakes, signatures ... it's been fantastic, honestly. I love it all and it's awesome to see motorcycle racing in such good health back here.

Cheers, Jack.