During the Sprint race of the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix, the problem for some riders was the… excessive pressure of the rear tire. A somewhat unusual situation, as the front tire usually has more issues in this regard.
The Portuguese rider told the press that the excessively high pressure only affected his front tyre: ‘I had the front, not the rear. I heard some people had stresses on the rear, some of them on the front, some of riders both. It’s just difficult to understand why. It was fairly hotter than we had in the test during the day. And we raced at 19h00; I think it has something to do with it, but I cannot pinpoint what it was’.
Regarding tire degradation for Sunday’s race, Oliveira stated: ‘I’m okay, I’m quite under control on that I think. At lap 19 I’ll able to tell you something’.