Miguel Oliveira didn’t have the start he wanted at the MotoGP Austrian GP. The Trackhouse Racing rider finished 18th in the afternoon practice session in Spielberg, forcing him into the first phase of qualifying. Even worse, the feeling with his Aprilia RS-GP was far from encouraging.
The Portuguese rider told the press that it was one of the toughest Fridays he’s had, far from the performance he aimed for despite his efforts:
– A sht day, nothing else to add. It was probably one of the hardest Fridays, no grip to ride out of the corners, no stopping, so yeah, we were pretty much a lot out of the window. I did push in the last run to try and get closer, but it’s still too far off where we want to be. There is quite a bit of work to do. In normal running, I was most of the time the fastest Aprilia, but then with the time attacks just Aleix [Espargaró] and Maverick [Viñales] did one good lap and that was it. It’s still too far off where we should be, and it’s a disaster.
After such a difficult start, Oliveira admitted that he’s not very confident going into Saturday: ‘First of all, I probably expect a big change for tomorrow and see if we can get closer to challenge for anything better really. But I don’t know; after today I’m not really confident. I don’t know, I just have to see what we can do tomorrow’.
Espargaró and Viñales were competitive enough to finish in the top ten in practice, but the #88 believes the chances of improving based on their data are limited: ‘For sure, but it’s only one lap, so probably we can look for a direction in terms of performance in one lap, but for the normal running we are getting smashed in lap time, pace, everything. So, it’s going to be hard’.
Regarding the physical demands, Oliveira commented: ‘Usually when the bike is sliding more or not stopping, you do a little bit more effort, but it’s like just pure tension; I don’t think it’s just you’re riding in a relaxed way, so when things are not going your way, you just try to force a little bit more. But that’s the only reason. I feel this is actually one of the less demanding tracks physically, it’s quite normal’.
