The eighth round of the MotoGP World Championship took place this weekend in the Netherlands, more specifically in Assen, the Netherlands. Over the three days of the GP, Miguel Oliveira showed his determination and desire to win at the Speed Cathedral, having managed to enter Q2, to start from the 4th row of the starting grid both in the sprint race and in the long race on Sunday, having in both races run very close to P5.
Friday started out sunny at the legendary TT Circuit in Assen, the day in which the Charneca de Caparica rider came close to directly entry into Q2, as he occupied 13th place in the classification of combined practice times. That day, Oliveira worked hard from the first to the second session. In practice two, he was even 0.872 seconds faster compared to the morning practice, closing the 13th best time of the day and missing Q2 by just 0.220 seconds. The Portuguese wasn't completely happy, but he was aware of what he needs to work on: “It was a strange day, morning and afternoon, I struggled with the stability of the bike in the quick changes of direction, which made me lose a lot of time. I think I must be the only one to have this kind of problem among the four Aprilia riders. There's definitely room for improvement, sure, we'll see that tomorrow [Saturday]. There was potential for so much more, but we just couldn't get past this little problem."
On Saturday, for the third time in six race weekends, Miguel Oliveira made the jump to qualifying two (Q2), staying just 0.094 seconds from first place. In Q2, the driver from Almada was unable to improve his lap time in Q1 and finished eleventh. For the sprint race, Miguel Oliveira got an exceptional start and even fought for P6 on the first lap, but at the end of the first lap he was in P12. At the beginning of the second lap, he was even pushed by another rider and lost all momentum, having no choice but to line up at the 'tail' of the peloton in P23. Although he managed to recover some positions in the next eleven laps, he passed the checkered flag in P19. “The race started very well for me and I progressed and gained some positions. But between turns 10 and 11 I was overtaken by Johann (Zarco) and pushed wide and in the meantime five more riders passed me. After that, under braking in the first corner, I overtook Marc (Marquez) who was on the outside, Alex (Marquez) came and passed both of them, and that's when I got “sandwiched” by them and had to release the brake to avoid hitting Alex”, commented Miguel Oliveira.
Sunday was for the CryptoData RNF MotoGP Team a day with mixed feelings. Despite Miguel Oliveira making a 'Falcão' start, he was unable to finish the race. His teammate, Raul Fernandez, achieved his best result of the year so far in the main race.
The Portuguese rider from RNF managed a cannon start, having dropped from P11 on the grid and having managed to run in P6 after the first corners. Miguel Oliveira had to do what he could to manage his energy, as his left shoulder still gives him a lot of pain, especially when changing direction quickly at the TT Circuit Assen. He lost a position in the first few laps, but continued to make progress, until unfortunately, after 12 laps, Oliveira returned to the pits and retired after detecting problems with the brakes on his machine.
"I made a good start in today's race [Sunday], I recovered some positions and was close to P5. But I was already fighting a lot, the bike had some problems that forced it to be unpredictable on the brakes. After a few laps, it was very difficult for me to continue, even though I'm slower. It's very frustrating and a shame to have to retire from the race, because we wanted to go into the summer break with a decent result, at least in the points, although today it was even possible to score some good points with Raul [Fernandez]. Anyway, we need to look at these three races as a bonus since I'm not at 100% and I'm still recovering, and being here was already a victory, I could stay with the team longer to to get to know them and improve, as well as doing some races on Sunday, which was good. In addition, we gathered information for myself and the team and now it's time to recalibrate for the second half of the season", concludes the Portuguese driver.
Now, the entire CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team and the entire MotoGP caravan are off on a well-deserved five-week summer break, until the action returns with the remaining 12 rounds of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship, with an initial date set for Silverstone, Great Britain.
