The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 Portuguese rider had established a goal before the Czech GP weekend: Improving his qualifying performance in order to avoid the need for raceday fightbacks. He did just that on Saturday at Brno, earning fourth position.
In the last Free Practice session of the weekend, Miguel Oliveira made a short stint in order to try out some pending setup modifications, followed by a stop in the garage and a long run in search of race pace. The results were positive: he lowered his times from yesterday and finished seventh -2:03.216- after setting one of the fastest paces of the Moto2 field.
As is customary in the Moto2 class, the grid places were largely decided in the first 10 minutes of qualifying, taking advantage of the rubber laid down by the MotoGP riders. Miguel Oliveira -2:02.446- managed to use this to his benefit by setting his best times of the weekend. The first 9 riders were separated by less than 3 tenths of a second. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider used the rest of the session to continue refining his race pace.
Miguel Oliveira #44
"It was a positive qualifying session. Our strategy changed this weekend; we worked to improve the bike for a fast lap. In the end everything went as we had expected, but of course having only five minutes to set a time means that my lap had mistakes and could have been better. Compared to my grid positions from the last few races it is a much better situation. It's my best qualifying result of the season, equaling what we did in Qatar, so we are back on the second row and I hope that this is the beginning of a change and that we can continue in this way.
Tomorrow we know that the heat will be a factor that might be decisive. We have a very good pace and I feel comfortable, so we will have to manage the physical side of the race in the best possible way to achieve a good result".
Tomorrow sees the tenth race of the season take place, a 19-lap contest that begins at 12:20pm local time.
Results (Qualifying session)
1. Luca Marini (Kalex) 2:02.244
2. Alex Marquez (Kalex) 2:02.359 +0.115
3. Mattia Pasini (Kalex) 2:02.417 +0.173
4. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:02.446 +0.202
5. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) 2:02.449 +0.205
7. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:02.493 +0.24
