Miguel Oliveira had to retire from the main race of the French MotoGP Grand Prix due to a breakdown in the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia. At the time, he had good prospects of finishing in the top ten, but for the first time in 2024 he left a round without any points.
The Portuguese rider explained that he had an early problem with the exhaust that was not yet understood, but he continued on track until it became unsustainable:
– The race wasn’t too bad. I was having a good pace, but early in the race I had a technical problem with the exhaust, and then I continued for about ten laps or so with this problem until a point where it caused a real performance limit in terms of how the electronics were managing engine braking, torque delivery, etc.. So I had to pull the bike out to avoid causing more damage. At that moment I didn’t know what it was, but surely by the difference in sound I could tell it was something related to the exhaust. The team is still investigating and together we will see what we can do to avoid this in the future.
Regarding the causes of the breakdown, Oliveira mentioned that there are still no possible conclusions: ‘It is too early to point fingers at the reason why this happened. I think we need some time to truly understand what went wrong. The team essentially did the same work as we did before. We will have to wait to analyze a bit more‘.
