The Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira, at the controls of an Aprilia, considered that the technical problems and the return from the break of the circuit ‘weighed’ on his performance today in the free practice sessions for the British Grand Prix of MotoGP.
“Today was a strange day. I had some technical problems in the morning and didn’t get much ‘feedback’, besides shaking off the ‘rust’ after the summer break. Then, in the afternoon, we basically started with the same base setup, but soon realized that it wasn’t the right way, so we tried to make a change during the practice,” said the 29-year-old from Almada in statements released in a communiqué by Trackhouse Racing.
Miguel Oliveira was the 15th fastest today in the free practice sessions for the British Grand Prix of MotoGP, the 10th race of the Motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship.
“There is still a big gap to close to be able to ride faster — I’m lacking a lot of stability, especially at the rear when I accelerate, so we are just trying to resolve that for tomorrow [Saturday]. I didn’t feel incredible on the bike today and was quite slow. Every lap I did was really attacking the bike too much and just reacting to what it was doing, and not feeling very comfortable, so I hope to find more speed tomorrow,” highlighted the Portuguese rider.
Miguel Oliveira clocked his best lap at the Silverstone circuit in 1.59.160 minutes, 1.249 seconds slower than the fastest, Spain’s Jorge Martin (Ducati), who recorded 1.57.911, while Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), the defending champion, achieved the third best time with 1.58.030.
As he finished outside the top 10, who qualify directly for the second qualifying session scheduled for Saturday, Miguel Oliveira will have to compete in the first qualifying phase, where only the top two gain the right to move on to the pole position discussion.
The Portuguese rider is currently in 13th place in the 2024 MotoGP World Championship, which is led by Bagnaia, winner of six of the nine races held this year, heading into the 10th of 20 races in the championship.