Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) was “satisfied” this Sunday to “get into the top ten after three difficult races” at the Spanish MotoGP Grand Prix.
Oliveira crossed the line in eighth place, 10.979 seconds behind the winner, Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), having made up six positions straight from the start.
“We have made some minor changes to the Warm-up. [aquecimento] which seemed to work quite well. Also, the fact that we installed a medium tire at the rear was, for some reason, better for us and for my driving,” said Miguel Oliveira.
However, the Portuguese rider regretted “two mistakes” that cost him “two positions”.
“I missed turn six and it cost me my place in the [Enea] Bastianini. Then on the 10th I missed the checkout. [de velocidades]my hand left the steering wheel and touched the holeshot button [partida] and I had to do the entire last sector with a lowered rear suspension and [Fábio] DiGiannantonio passed me there,” he explained.
The bikes are equipped with a system that lowers the rear suspension when starting from a standstill to minimize the bike’s tendency to swerve when starting off and allow riders to better control the power.
The Portuguese, who faces a test day on Monday, stressed, however, that today “everyone made mistakes, passing by at some point.”
The Portuguese driver promises to “focus a little more on extracting speed from the soft tire at the rear”, something he admits he hasn’t been able to achieve “all weekend”.
“We will also try to improve some aspects that we are not very happy with at the moment,” he concluded.
The Portuguese rider scored eight points at this fourth round of the season, finishing best of the four Aprilia riders and moving up to 13th place in the championship.
The next stage is the French Grand Prix, which will take place from May 10 to 12.