Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) finished this Friday in 16th place in the time trial for the Dutch MotoGP Grand Prix, the eighth round of the World Motorcycle Championship season.
Oliveira will therefore have to complete the first of two qualifying rounds, Q1, which takes place this Saturday morning, before the afternoon sprint race.
The Portuguese rider, who finished 13th in free practice this morning, ended the day with a time of 1:32.488 minutes, finishing 1,148 seconds behind the fastest, Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who beat Spaniard Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) by 0.065 seconds, and his compatriot Alex Marquez (Ducati), who finished third, by 0.255 seconds.
The day was dominated by two-time champion Francesco Bagnaia, who was fastest in the first two Grand Prix practice sessions for the first time.
The two-time world champion even broke the Dutch record with a time of 1:31:340 minutes. The first person to achieve the best result in Assen, considered the cathedral of motorcycling, was Maverick Viñales. But Bagnaia soon set a new record.
As for Miguel Oliveira, he experienced difficulties with maneuverability in his Aprilia.
“It was a little windy, which made things difficult,” explained the pilot from Almada.
Oliveira said “changes were made to the bike” to help him “in the fast corners” of the track.
“I still have a lot to lose [tempo] because I can’t turn the bike. What we did during the session was not enough. We need to make deeper changes for tomorrow and I hope we can achieve more speed,” stressed the 29-year-old Portuguese rider.
Miguel Oliveira noted that “the other Aprilias are doing well” so he hopes to “find the missing speed and get a good position in qualifying”.
Oliveira’s Trackhouse teammate, Spaniard Rauld Fernandez, finished ninth to secure a direct place in Q2.
The North American team’s sporting director, Wilko Zeelenberg, said the Portuguese rider “had some difficulties with the soft tyre, the yellow flags and the feel of the bike.”
“On the medium tire he was faster, he did 1.32.4 minutes. But then he put on a soft tire to try to get a fast lap and got yellow flags,” he lamented.
However, he stressed that “this is not a drama”. “We will see what he can do tomorrow,” he concluded.
Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati), who was fifth fastest in time trial today, arrives at the race as the championship leader with 171 points, 18 more than Bagnaia. Miguel Oliveira is 15th with 31 points.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

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