Miguel Oliveira finished his race at the Malaysian GP prematurely after completing only five laps. When analyzing the reason for his fall, the Portuguese rider could not find a logical explanation, considering perhaps a touch with his teammate before the incident that ended the race.
To the press present in Sepang, the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider explained, or tried to clarify despite doubts, what happened: ‘I fell in turn nine, lost the front. In terms of front locking, it came a little earlier than usual. I looked at the data and there is nothing that can justify the fall’.
Despite not seeming to have a strong indicator for what motivated such an early end, the Portuguese believes that a situation with Raúl Fernández may be at the center of what happened moments later: ‘The only thing that comes to mind is that I touched Raúl a little in turn one and broke the wing of the bike on the left side. The big wing was completely destroyed and that may have created some imbalance, some difficulties to stop the bike, it is the only thing we can take from the situation to justify.’ Looking ahead to the future, Oliveira wants to turn the situation around and show a performance closer to what he knows how to do: ‘- In a track where we knew we would have a tough race ahead, with difficulties to overtake or almost impossible even. We didn’t give up and I hope we can overcome this in Qatar where last year, it seemed, more or less, that the Aprilias managed to defend themselves well. Once again we will face a new asphalt, at a completely different time in the season – not at the beginning but at the end – and I hope we can be more competitive.’
