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 did not find a logical explanation, considering perhaps a touch with his teammate prior to the moment that determined the end of the race.
To the press present in Sepang, the rider of the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team explained, or tried to clarify despite the doubts, what happened: ‘I fell in turn nine, I lost the front. In terms of front locking, it happened a little earlier than it normally does. I looked at the data and there’s nothing that can justify the fall’.
Although there doesn’t seem to be a strong indicator of what caused such an early end, the Portuguese rider 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, that’s the only thing we can take from the situation to justify it’.
With his eyes on the future, Oliveira wants to turn the situation around and show a performance closer to what he knows how to do:
– On a track where we knew we would have a tough race ahead, with difficulties to overtake or almost impossible even. We don’t give up and I hope we can overcome this in Qatar where last year, it seemed, 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
