Miguel Oliveira finished 15th in both Friday practices for the French MotoGP Grand Prix. The Trackhouse Racing rider couldn’t get into the fight for the top ten that would grant direct access to the second qualifying session in Le Mans.
The Portuguese rider explained that he had some difficulties with the tyres and also some misfortune with the timing of his attacks on the clock: ‘It was a good afternoon. I did a couple of changes to the bike and I didn’t felt quite good with the soft rear [tyre], especially in the second run I had a huge drop of the tyre. In terms of pace I was a little bit far. Then on the time attack I was maybe too conservative on the first stint and then on the second one I started pushing and I had the yellow flag on the last lap having done my best first sector’.
On the positive side, Oliveira believes there is room for improvement on Saturday: ‘So I was just disappointed about that, because the overall performance is much better, the ideal last time is much faster, so it means we have that margin to improve tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough Q1 session, but we have to go through it and qualify the best as we can’.
Regarding the higher temperatures than expected, «Falcão» commented: ‘Usually when it’s a little bit cooler, I remember we didn’t suffer as much with the rear tyre. I say even compared to the hottest that has been last year, we have 10ºC more of asphalt temperature and it’s slightly more drop, but it’s much safer to attack with the front tyre, so it’s give-and-take. But I think we prefer much more to have this heat than cold in Le Mans for sure. It’s much trickier to deal it’.