Three weeks after snapping his right leg in a training accident, one week after he was in too much pain to even throw his leg over a motorcycle, and one day after he'd qualified a career-best fifth on the grid, Jack Miller surged to the lead at the first corner of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, scything past none other than three-time world champion Marc Marquez to send the Phillip Island crowd into delirium.
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Which posed one problem. What to do next?
Miller has led a world championship Grand Prix before - he memorably won the Dutch TT at Assen last year in weather better suited for boats than a Honda capable of nudging 350km/h - but this was something entirely different. Leading a race on merit in bone-dry conditions at home? With a plate and eight screws in his leg? This wasn't in the script. And while he faded to seventh in a race won by Marquez after 27 frantic laps of the Phillip Island circuit on Sunday, Miller felt finishing just five seconds from the victory was his most convincing MotoGP performance yet - and one that taught him a valuable lesson.
The Townsville 22-year-old stormed away from the rest of the pack at such a fearsome pace on Sunday that he led for the opening five laps, keeping vastly more experienced riders on superior bikes in his wheeltracks. But then the realisation that he'd need to preserve his Michelin tyres for later in the race if he was to snatch a shock home podium dawned on him, and Miller admitted afterwards that the thrill of leading his home Grand Prix might have clouded his thinking.
"I was thinking 'is this really happening?' " he said. "Being in the lead felt like forever for me.
"I got a decent start, and then Marc ran wide and opened the door for me, so I pushed through. I thought there was no better place to be on the first lap than first, especially into (Turn 4) with all of the others behind me. I had a really good opening couple of laps and was able to pull a gap on the other guys. But I might have got a bit carried away."
By the time Miller "took the brain out of neutral", he knew that his best chance of earning a second MotoGP podium finish had become a long shot as the rest of the pack started to gnaw at his advantage.
"On the third lap, I buttoned off a little bit - whoever was behind me, I just wanted them to come through because I wanted a marker, someone to set the pace so I wasn't out there spinning the tyre off its head and destroying it," he said.
"Once I got a few laps in behind Marc, and understood what he was doing on his tyre, I started trying to do that, but it was probably too little too late. I've learned what I need to do for next year."
MotoGP riders, by their very nature, are rarely satisfied, Miller admitting to being mildly annoyed on Saturday after equalling his career-best qualifying effort of fifth, given fourth-placed Andrea Iannone (Suzuki) was just two-hundredths of a second faster. But just seven days after being forced to watch the Japanese Grand Prix on TV from his mum's couch in Townsville and barely being able to walk without a limp, seventh place - and those early laps - gave Miller cause for pause.
"The cocky, confident person inside me was saying 'you'll be right', but the real me was thinking 'this isn't going to be easy'," he said of his expectations for his home race so soon after surgery.
"To come back here and, let alone ride, but be as competitive as we were, wasn't what I expected. I haven't had that many strong dry races - we've been there or thereabouts, but never for the whole race. Today was just a really good run and I felt really comfortable. Maybe I need to break my leg more often ???"
