Miguel Oliveira finished the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix sprint race in 17th place. This continues the complicated weekend for the Portuguese rider of the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team in Buriram, at the end of a Saturday that started with some glimpses of hope considering the clear improvements in the second free practice session.
At the beginning, #88’s progress was discreet, moving from 20th to 17th on the first lap. On the next lap, he received a first warning for track limits violation, but on the third lap he gained a position with the fall of Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda).
However, the work was undone on the fourth lap, losing four positions at once and dropping back to 20th. With Augusto Fernández’s (GasGas Tech3/KTM) fall on the sixth lap, Oliveira moved up to 19th. However, he was unable to fight against the closest rivals – trailing almost two seconds behind the nearest rider.
Without pace, the Portuguese rider had to take advantage of others’ misfortunes to gain positions, as was the case again on the eighth lap with Fabio Di Giannantonio’s (Gresini/Ducati) delay, reaching the 18th position. On the last lap, he even moved up one more place, swapping with Maverick Viñales (Aprilia).
Medium front tire and medium rear tire
Lap 1: 20th -> 17th
Lap 2: 17th
Lap 3: 17th -> 16th
Lap 4: 16th -> 20th
Lap 5: 20th
Lap 6: 20th -> 19th
Lap 7: 19th
Lap 8: 19th -> 18th
Lap 9: 18th
Lap 10: 18th
Lap 11: 18th
Lap 12: 18th
Lap 13: 18th -> 17th (end of race)