The first day of MotoGP with the main riders on track came to an end. With Miguel Oliveira also in Sepang, the Portuguese finished with the 15th time and was the third among the Aprilia.
With his best 23rd lap being his best, at 1:58.750s, Oliveira finished the day leading the latest version of the RS-GP in third place among the four seats with Aprilia riders. Maverick Viñales was sixth (1:58.470s), Aleix Espargaró 13th (1:58.738s).
Raúl Fernández, the only one still riding the 2023 bike, was 22nd, with a time of 2:00.120s and only 21 laps completed. He ended his day early due to a highside, being forced to go to the hospital.
In a rough comparison with what he did on his first day of testing in Sepang last year, there is a significant improvement in terms of times: Oliveira now rode in 1:58.750s, while last year – starting his path of adaptation to the new bike – he was 14th, with a time of 1:59.730s, an improvement of almost 1s.
Oliveira is now 0.799s behind Jorge Martín (1:57.951s) while last year he was exactly 1.260s behind Martín (1:58.470s), the fastest also on the first day.
There will be another day of testing tomorrow.
