On a day where he finished 17th in both sessions, Miguel Oliveira started the MotoGP Indian GP far from the front. The rider from the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team had to adapt to the Buddh International Circuit, just like his competitors, as this race and track are in the calendar for the very first time.
The Portuguese rider explained to the press that FP1, in particular, was challenging, but the situation improved in the afternoon’s practice: ‘The morning session was a little bit difficult. I think every corner we missed the apex. I guess we were expecting the track to be a little bit faster, to be honest. But I found it quite narrow and a little bit difficult to get your head around the braking markers. But in general the afternoon was a little bit more fun, also the track was better. Fun to ride, just too hot. That’s it’.
According to Oliveira, the first corner was a particularly challenging part of the track: ‘The turn one is a little bit difficult to do, because it’s very narrow in the exit, it’s a 90º corner, so a 90º corner anyway has only one line. But also then you have a left, but kind of the track continues a little bit to the right and then you turn left. So, it’s not easy at all. And then it’s slightly downhill and then uphill. So, it’s a nightmare to do that corner. Every time you go to a new lap, if you are a little bit too late looking at the dashboard or switching any button, you’re gone. You don’t make the corner’.
On the other hand, the #88 liked the corner nine/ten: ‘Yeah, I tried different things. It’s a though corner, very interesting. You don’t see the entry, but somehow the apex is done very, very late after you make the banking. So you just need to carry a lot of speed in and then trust that the track will hold your bike and make it turn. So, it’s not that simple, but I got it right in the afternoon and it’s a fun corner to do’.
When confronted with the fact that Aleix Espargaró considers it to be a corner particularly favorable to Aprilia, Oliveira commented: ‘I don’t know. It’s a fun sector that sector. There is where the fun starts. You have a very difficult last part of the track, so the last corner and the first three corners. Then you have like two big straights which break the rhythm. So, braking to turn four and exiting the turn four. Then, you really start to have a little bit more fun in the other plans. But it’s just track where the long straight kind of breaks the rhythm’.