Miguel Oliveira retired from the MotoGP Thailand GP due to a failure in his Aprilia RS-GP – which has not been specified publicly.

In the eve of the Malaysian GP, the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team rider only explained that the failure is not related to the overheating and high-temperature issues that Aprilia riders complained about in Buriram:

– Anything that happened to my bike wasn’t related to heat problems, it was just a technical failure. It’s the only thing I can say and I’m allowed to say. So, I have to leave you wondering about that a bit more. I can’t say much more.

O conteúdo ‘What happened to the bike in Buriram wasn’t related to the heat, it was a technical failure’ – Miguel Oliveira aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Last Sunday, Jorge Martín won the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix. In one of the most exciting races in recent times, he crossed the finish line with a gap of just 0.253s.

This race goes down in history as one of the closest finishes in the premier class, ahead of last year’s Australian GP. The absolute record belongs to the 1999

Australian GP when Tadayuki Okada won with a mere 0.124s margin over Max Biaggi.

In the following video, you can revisit the 500cc/MotoGP races with the smallest gap between the top two finishers.

O conteúdo Video: The closest winning margins in MotoGP history aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Francesco Bagnaia finished second in the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix, in a race where he had to make a comeback after a less-than-ideal start. The Ducati rider also benefited from Brad Binder’s (Red Bull KTM) penalty, but while chasing his rivals, he didn’t consistently regain time.

Ramón Forcada explained to 3cat that the championship leader was carefully managing the front tyre due to the issue of pressures, which increase when riding too close behind another bike:

– When the front pressure increases too much, you can’t stop the bike. This is a circuit where braking is very important, and it should be a tougher circuit on the brakes. It’s clear that this is the way to manage it. If you’re less than 0.4ss behind, you’re already getting the dirty air from the bike in front, and the pressure goes up. If you’re between 0.7s and 0.8s, you can control it. If you notice, he got close to the front, then backed off, and then got close again. It’s the typical way of controlling pressures.

O conteúdo Ramón Forcada and the ‘typical way of controlling the pressures’ displayed by Francesco Bagnaia in Buriram aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Aprilia once again couldn’t compete for top positions in the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix. Their best rider, Aleix Espargaró, finished a distant eighth.

Furthermore, all four riders – both from the official team and the CryptoDATA RNF satellite team – experienced issues with the heat generated by the bikes in the race held in Buriram, where the ambient temperatures are already high.

Carlo Pernat emphasized on the GPOne.com website that the manufacturer from Noale suffered another disappointment and may have some problems to solve: ‘Once again, a big disappointment for Aprilia, which may have some issues with bike setup, especially regarding the tyres’.

O conteúdo ‘The Thai GP was another big disappointment for Aprilia’ – Carlo Pernat aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Jorge Martín achieved a perfect result at the MotoGP Thai GP, winning both the sprint race and the main race, narrowing the gap to championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) to just 13 points.

In his analysis for GPOne.com, riders manager Carlo Pernat praised the Prima Pramac rider, making it clear that he is currently the strongest rider in the field:

– Martín once again proved that he’s the best rider we’ve seen in recent races. Right now, he’s the most competitive. He’s the one fighting. This victory was well-deserved, and the points gap is narrowing again. It was also a success for Pramac, a great team that deserves all of this.

O conteúdo ‘At the moment, Jorge Martín is the most competitive; he’s the one fighting’ – Carlo Pernat aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Brad Binder may not have won the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix, but the overtaking move that briefly put him in the lead was voted by fans as the best of the Buriram round.

The South African rider from Red Bull KTM moved ahead of Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) on the inside of turn eight and then managed to close the door, preventing his rival from reacting.

However, Binder eventually lost the position and went into the final lap battling to make another overtake on Martín – without success, as he ended up exceeding track limits and also lost position to Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati).

Watch Binder’s overtaking move on Martín in the video below.

O conteúdo Video: Brad Binder made the best overtake of the Thai GP aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

This last weekend Buriram hosted a big big sunday of battles on the win for the victory at Thailand where Jorge Martin got to win over Brad Binder and Pecco Bagnaia. Gigi Dall’Igna spoke of the last competition day, considering this to bo be a ‘superb race’, while at the same time the Ducati rider gave it all.

On Linkedin the General Manager Ducati Corse at Ducati Motor Holding began by recalling sunday: ‘A superb race that honours and well represents this fiercely contested end of season, as exciting and uncertain as ever seen in recent years. A podium restricted within mere 3 tenths of a second says it all about a GP lived to the last meter with tight duelling at each lap’.

Bagnaia ended up being promoted to second place after Binder touched the green part of the track on the last lap, being then demoted in one position: 

– Pecco started well and tried to manage a race that was immediately combated and that demanded his comeback without room for any calculations and strategies. His was an outstanding race and he was really splendid, recovering many positions until he was able to challenge for the lead with an overtaking attempt that, had it been successful, would have gone down in history as a real masterpiece. Objectively, he gave everything, he was at the very limit and only that extra thrust in the qualifying runs necessary to earn him a better position on the grid was missing. 

O conteúdo Gigi Dall’Igna praises Thai GP and Pecco Bagnaia: ‘The race on sunday was superb and Bagnaia was splendid, he gave everything’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Brad Binder led the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix for a brief moment after overtaking Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati). However, he lost the position but continued to fight for the victory.

The South African rider from Red Bull KTM explained in a press conference that after the overtake, he encountered some difficulties in controlling the bike, eventually entering «survival mode»:

– Actually the biggest thing I noticed was the lap I passed him it was fine. It was the next one: as soon as I came to over to the left side of the tyre, I would start pumping on the straights. I also a had big vibration on the rear tyre, so I realised that it was probably due to the base rubber. And from then on was just to survive and fight with whatever I had.

O conteúdo ‘It was just to survive and fight with whatever I had’ – Brad Binder aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Brad Binder was the second rider to cross the finish line in the last race of theThailand GP but, given a penalty, the south african was demoted in one position finishing then as third on sunday. A result that Francesco Guidotti considered to be ‘strong’ in a day that luck didn’t stick with his rider. As for Jack Miller, the team might have missed on what it gave to the rider.

The Team Manager of Red Bull KTM started of by analysing the #33’s sunday race: ‘An amazing race, and an amazing race for the win by Brad with a strong result. Unluckily he touched the green zone on the last lap so he had to drop one position but he did so well to push all the way inside the top three. We really enjoyed it. We’re already looking forward to the next race with a lot of confidence’.

As for Miller, who finished outisde of the points, the italian added: ‘A different story with Jack as we just couldn’t give him the setting he needed with the special tire allocation here. For sure there is still work to do’.

O conteúdo Francesco Guidotti analysed KTM results in Thailand: ‘Binder had an amazing race; We couldn’t give Miller the settings he needed’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Honda is still looking for the best performance and Takaaki Nakagami is working on strategies to be more competitive, and to that end he admitted in Thailand that he was inspired by… Marc Marquez.

In his usual analysis of his race, the japanese LCR Honda rider admits he was disappointed with his result in the race, especially given his initial performance in sunday’s race, where he didn’t have such a competitive pace: ‘I had a good start but I couldn’t gain positions early on in the race, I was inside the pack. During the race I was behind Jack [Miller], and at the end of the second half of the race my pace wasn’t bad, in the top five or six, but at the start I was very slow and that cost me a lot of [places]. In the last corner I overtook Jack and Raul [Fernandez] and in the end I managed to score but I was disappointed because this weekend I had a very reasonable race pace, but at the beginning I wasn’t strong enough and I’m disappointed with the final result’.

Nakagami then went on to explain that he had been trying all weekend to work out a way to be faster… with Marc Marquez serving as his inspiration, leaving a warning for what’s to come:

– We’ve tried different strategies since free practice, always trying to follow someone, especially the Ducati for us to use the slipstream and gain one or even two tenths, and that really makes a lot of difference. The next race will be very important, with two long straights, and we’ll try the same strategy as Marc [Marquez] did: follow someone to try to get the best performance to get a lap time, to try to improve the grid position and have an easier life.

O conteúdo Takaaki Nakagami prepares strategy for the next GP… with Marquez in mind: ‘We’ll try to follow a Ducati, it helps a lot’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.