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 finish in Friday’s practice. In Mugello, at the Italian GP, he set the fourth fastest time this afternoon.
Although pleased with this first day in Mugello, the Trackhouse Racing Portuguese driver 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 session that really helped me be a bit faster – especially on entry to the corner. And then I had the two time attacks, they went well, especially the second one was a very good lap – not perfect, I felt I could have driven 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 and had to react – with success, as his bike was running much better than in the Catalan GP:
– We tried to understand what happened in Barcelona. This morning we went in a direction 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 working a bit better, especially with new tires, and that’s it. The bike is the bike. But, to be honest, it’s working much better here than it was in Barcelona, so at least we could be competitive and that’s good.
