It is already this weekend, between 21 and 23 October, that the penultimate event of the MotoGP World Championship takes place, the 19th of the calendar, which is followed by the traditional Spanish round, in Valencia, to close the 2022 season. Miguel Oliveira arrives in Malaysia, after an astute 12th place in the Australian round, when he had started from 24th on the starting grid, to embrace the challenge of competing for the penultimate time with the colors of the Austrian RedBull KTM family, over the 5,543 Km perimeter of the Malay route.
About 50km from Kuala Lumpur, the Sepang International Circuit, in Malaysia, is another circuit that welcomes the MotoGP caravan again, after two years without hearing the engines around there, due to the pandemic world situation held between 2020 and 2021.
With four slow corners followed by two long straights and ten medium to high speed corners, the Sepang track is especially favorable for overtaking maneuvers and a lot of acceleration. Being a long track, it is also one of the most tiring for the riders, due to the intense heat and humidity, with temperatures above 30º expected, even in October.
Oliveira was already quite happy at the Sepang Circuit, but, in the premier class of MotoGP, it will be the first time he will compete at the track. His achievements at this circuit include two victories with the orange colors (2015, in Moto3, and 2017, in Moto2), as well as two podiums (in 2013, in Moto3, at Mahindra, and in 2018, in Moto2, with Red Bull KTM). In 2013 he also set the fastest lap on the circuit, setting the track record (in the Moto3 category) at 2:14.339.
The MotoGP race, scheduled for this Sunday at 08:00 a.m, mainland Portugal time, will have 20 laps, covering practically 111km covered by the racing peloton.
GP Malaysia time schedule:
Friday, October 21
FP1 – 03:50-04:35
FP2 – 08:05-08:50
Saturday, October 22
FP3 – 03:50-04:35
FP4 – 07:25-07:55
Q1 – 08:05-08:20
Q2 – 08:30-08:45
Sunday, October 23
WUP – 03:40-04:00
Race – 08:00
