After a weekend in which Miguel Oliveira visibly improved his times and distances for the front riders, the Portuguese rider suffered a fall in the initial laps of the race in the Circuit of Sachsenring and ended up finishing it in the eighteenth position .
The Red Bull KTM Tech3 rookie started the day with na amazing Warm-Up session, finishing in the eighth place, 1.123 seconds from session leader – Marc Marquez.
Miguel Oliveira started the race with a good start, recovering immediately 3 positions. The Portuguese rider suffered a crash in Turn 3 just in the first few laps, eventually becoming totally isolated from the rest of the squad in eighteenth position. The Almada rider still returned to the race and joined the Top5 of the fastest riders several times, yet the high distance to the other riders did not allow him to recover positions.
"It was a race with a somewhat inglorious ending, after having made a good start and have regained some positions. I made a mistake on turn 3, the front of the bike ran away and I ended up falling. The bike continued to work, so I picked it up and continued the race with some damage mainly on the front wing on the right side. It was difficult to run without a wing, because it caused a lot of instability. It would not allow me to go straight on the straight, nor to brake right. However, the important thing was to get on the bike and continue the race because I showed a great pace and we had a great potential to finish in the Top 10. We had lap times faster than the best KTM and even faster times than the group that struggled for 4th place. Despite the end, I'm very happy with the weekend. These were important days when we learned a lot and are optimistic for what follows. Now we have a summer stop to recover energies and I am sure we will return in Brno, Czech Republic, stronger and closer to what our goal is." Miguel Oliveira
The MotoGP championship returns with the tenth round in the Czech Republic on the weekend of 2, 3 and 4 August.
Race Rank:
1. M. Marquez (Honda)
2. M.Viñales (Yamaha)
3. C. Crutchlow (Honda)
18. M. Oliveira (KTM)
