Miguel Oliveira concluded the first day of training for the MotoGP Qatar GP in 19th place in the timed session – which determines the direct qualifiers for the second phase of qualification. The CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider briefly led but couldn’t maintain the pace of the fastest riders.
Despite acknowledging that he made many mistakes, the Portuguese rider showed confidence in the Aprilia RS-GP and in his abilities to perform better this Saturday: ‘The bike was working very well actually. It had a good grip, a good stability, I just made a lot of mistakes and I couldn’t put it together. So Friday was a tough one for me, but I feel I have the bike and also I can be fast to be able to do a lap tomorrow and challenge maybe for a spot in the Q2’.
Asked whether the mistakes also stem from the track seeming different, Oliveira replied: ‘Not at all, just normal things. The line is a little bit narrow, but it improved so much from the afternoon to the evening. I expect tomorrow also to maybe have a little step towards the track being a bit cleaner. Right now it looks a bit like Indonesia kind of lines and it’s difficult to race each other. But the grip of the track is actually quite good. Just the starts haven’t been great, it seems to be still a lot of dirt on the main straight where we do the starts. We’ll see tomorrow what happens’.