The rain played a big part in the second Moto2 World Championship qualifying session of the year, held this afternoon at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. Miguel Oliveira had been inside the Top3 for every practice session, but in qualifying he placed seventh. Despite this, Miguel Oliveira is confident that he can fight for the podium in tomorrow's race.
Intermittent light rain during FP3 allowed the Moto2 23 year old rider to try out wet tyres on the track for the first time, on an asphalt that has been partially resurfaced this year. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider was competitive in such conditions, with Oliveira in third position -1:57.880-.
The rain fell again right as Moto2 QP got underway. This meant that Miguel Oliveira hurried to set a good lap time before the asphalt condition worsened. The Portuguese rider achieved his best lap time in the first 15 minutes. In fourth place during most of the session, changes of positions in the final minutes relegated him to seventh -1:57.006-.
Miguel Oliveira #44
"It was a bit of a strange qualifying session, because it wasn't raining at the start -and then it rained only at certain points of the track. To tell the truth, when it was raining more intensely I didn't feel completely comfortable on the bike, and that meant that I couldn't improve my time.
We're starting from seventh, which isn't bad at all, but we'd like to be further forward on the grid. We will have to have some good opening laps and regain as many positions as possible, in order to latch onto the frontrunners".
Tomorrow's race will start at 5:20pm Portuguese local time. Last year, Miguel Oliveira got his first podium in the intermediate class in Argentina.
Results (Qualifying session)
1. Xavi Vierge (Kalex) 1:56.137
2. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Kalex) 1:56.408 +0.271
3. Danny Kent (Speed Up) 1:56.536 +0.399
4. Mattia Pasini (Kalex) 1:56.591 +0.454
5. Jorge Navarro (Kalex) 1:56.679 +0.542
7. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:57.006 +0.869
