Miguel Oliveira had a busy day at Brno on Friday. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Portuguese rider was back after a three weeks break and devoted much of the two Free Practice sessions to trying out new setups and developments. Miguel Oliveira completed the first day in twelfth place.
The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider dedicated the first 45 minute session to getting his feel for the bike back after the summer break. It was not an easy start, with track temperatures of 41ºC. The Portuguese rider set his best time in the first of his two stints in FP1. Miguel Oliveira placed tenth with a time of 2:04.701.
In the afternoon, when the track temperature had already risen to 49ºC, Miguel Oliveira began trying new set-ups with qualifying in mind. The results were positive, although neither the track conditions nor the continuous setup testing prevented Oliveira -2:03.694, twelfth, from significantly lowering his time from FP1.
Miguel Oliveira #44
"Today we tried the new parts that KTM have brought for the second half of the season. The truth is that, although we still have to keep testing them, I noticed an improvement with the rear. I got more grip with it, which is what we have been looking for in recent races. This first day has been very positive. We have begun the weekend with a setup that is a bit more extreme and we are getting closer and closer to last year's bike, which was very good. I'm happy with the work we've done today, although when we put the soft tyre on at the end of the day we didn't do much work with it; we'll leave that for tomorrow.
Today we were able to prepare well for qualifying, which was our goal, so tomorrow I hope I can get a grid position a little higher up the order than at the last few races. The high temperatures don't worry me too much because they will be the same for everyone. In the first minutes of qualifying it will be important to take advantage of the grip on the track".
Tomorrow the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider will try to finish the work done throughout Friday with a good position on the starting grid. The fight for the pole position will take place at 2:05pm Portuguese local time.
Results (Combined practice times FP1-FP2)
1. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) 2:03.118
2. Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex) 2:03.319 +0.201
3. Matia Pasini (Kalex) 2:03.359 +0.241
4. Alex Marquez (Kalex) 2:03.411 +0.293
5. Fabio Quartararo (Speed Up) 2:03.501 +0.383
12. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:03.694 +0.576
