Friday to forget for Miguel Oliveira in Buriram. The CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider once again struggled in the practice session for the Thai MotoGP, finishing last and over a second off the pace at the top. Consequently, he is naturally relegated to the first phase of qualifying.
On his first flying lap, #88 was in 14th place, but despite improving immediately afterwards, he dropped to 16th. He had a hard front tire and a medium rear tire on the Aprilia. On his fourth attempt, he clocked a time of 1m31s and moved up to 12th. Without improving on subsequent laps, he gradually lost positions and was in 15th when he returned to the pits after around 20 minutes.
Oliveira’s pit stop lasted less than ten minutes, but in the meantime he dropped to 18th… before quickly recovering to 16th. That was the position he held when he returned to the garage after only three flying laps, now with two hard tires.
Within the last 20 minutes, the Almada pilot started a new series of laps and soon improved, but remained in 15th place. After completing two consistent laps in 1m31s with medium tires, he chose to return to the pits. While Oliveira was not on the track, several pilots improved their times, relegating him to 20th place. It was only in the last five minutes that the “Falcon” started his final sequence of laps. However, he did not improve and was even overtaken, dropping to the last place on the table. He was 1.278s behind the leader, Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati).
