The Sprint race of the Spanish MotoGP Grand Prix ended with ninth place for Miguel Oliveira. The Trackhouse Racing rider was briefly in eighth, but a passing maneuver by Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) pushed him back to tenth before he recovered to ninth with Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) crashing at the end.
Despite the situation with the Spaniard, the Portuguese rider acknowledged that he didn’t have the pace to do much more: ‘I just needed to be a second faster and then he wouldn’t have been able to pass me so easily. That’s the aspect I need to focus on, not these passing stories. I need to be at least a second faster in race pace and the team needs to help me with that because I didn’t have grip from start to finish, braking and accelerating today I simply didn’t have the traction to stop and accelerate. It’s very frustrating not being able to do more and that’s where we are‘.
Asked if track conditions also played a role in his difficulties, #88 explained: ‘For me, not having rubber didn’t help to start, but the tires didn’t improve, I couldn’t be faster. Of course, having several riders fighting in front doesn’t help, but anyway we should be faster, but we’re not. So, that’s where we are. The race itself was tough, the conditions were very difficult to assess, where to put the wheels, how much you can attack‘.
And how can the team help more? Oliveira replied: ‘I can’t be my own chief mechanic, I have to trust that the team makes the changes and analyzes. I’m pushing the team and I just need to be faster and need to have better grip to do it‘.
According to “Falcão”, checking the data of factory pilots can be helpful, but not only by itself: ‘Probably [Maverick] Viñales, a few laps, we can certainly see. But it’s not just about seeing and saying, “Well, what they’re saying, we can see.” It’s actually about doing something, making a decision and trying something that can help me‘.
