Miguel Oliveira finally achieved something he had been looking for a long time – direct qualification for the second qualifying session, thanks to a top ten in Friday’s practice. In Mugello, at the Italian GP, he set the fourth fastest time this afternoon.
Despite being pleased with this first day in Mugello, the Trackhouse Racing’s Portuguese rider acknowledged that his lap could have been even better: ‘It was good, we did a good job this afternoon. We made a change at the beginning of the practice that really helped me to be a bit faster – especially on corner entry. And then I had the two timed laps, they went well, especially the second one was a very good lap – not perfect, I felt I could have ridden a bit cleaner. Anyway, the lap came, so I’m happy with that. I think it’s the first time this season in the top ten on a Friday, so I’m definitely happy with that‘.
Not everything went well for Oliveira, who made a wrong choice in the morning practice session and had to react – with success, as his bike was working much better than in the Catalunya GP:
– We tried to understand what happened in Barcelona. This morning we went in a direction that we didn’t follow in Barcelona and it was completely wrong, so we went back to our bike this afternoon. And then we adjusted the bike a bit more and everything started to work a bit better, especially with the new tires, and that’s it. The bike is the bike. But, to be honest, it’s working much better here than it was working in Barcelona, so at least we could be competitive and that’s good.
