The start of the Thai MotoGP was not ideal for Miguel Oliveira. This Friday, the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider finished last in both sessions, unable to match the top lap times.
The Portuguese rider explained that he didn’t have a bad pace and didn’t feel bad on the Aprilia, but he talked about a lack of grip and the yellow flags hampering his fast laps: ‘Today I didn’t have a bad feeling with the bike. I had a couple of technical issues with the brakes in the morning, in my last run. This afternoon my pace actually was not too bad, with the hard rear [tyre] especially, but then with the time attacks I lacked a little bit extra grip. But the biggest problem was the two yellow flags at the end of the session which really finished my possibilities of improving the lap time by a big margin. Anyway the ideal lap time still cruising around is much faster. It will be a tough morning tomorrow and will be tight to go to Q2. But we will do the best’.
Regarding the other Aprilia riders, Oliveira commented: ‘The factory guys went very fast. Today Raúl [Fernández] did the same lap time as Aleix [Espargaró] last year, so I would say today Raúl could reach the potential. I had a ideal [lap time] of 1m30,5s, which is not too far, but not enough to be in the top ten’.