Miguel Oliveira finished the MotoGP Japanese GP sprint race in 14th place. On a Saturday where he had a subdued performance, the rider from the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team couldn’t contend for a top-ten finish, also after having qualified in 16th place.
The Portuguese rider expressed to the press that he had more pace but admitted to being disappointed with his performance: ‘It was a little bit disappointing. I had a little bit more pace than what I showed. I got a little bit tangled behind Augusto [Fernández] and [Franco] Morbidelli. It took me a bit of imagination to try an overtake on Morbidelli – it wasn’t easy. But finally I could manage to overtake him. Then the pace started to go down a little bit, but I was managing to keep the same pace’.
Despite the result, Oliveira believes it was a good way to prepare for the main race, gaining insights into what needs improvement: ‘It was a good preparation for tomorrow. We know for sure what we need to improve on the bike in terms of stability out of the corners, avoid spinning so much and try to stop better. That’s the main target for tomorrow’.