MotoGP, a good start mitigates Miguel Oliveira’s poor qualifications in India

Miguel Oliveira finished the Indian Grand Prix in 12th place, on a weekend in which he had been struggling. After qualifying in which he was only 19th, the Portuguese driver made good use of a good start in the sprint race which allowed him to move closer to the top ten.

The Portuguese began today by participating in the second free training session, in which he does not appear to have improved compared to what he showed on Friday. In a session that was not very representative, and no longer decided anything when it came to qualifying for Q2, Oliveira finished twentieth, having set his best lap of 1:46.506 minutes, the tenth of the 12 laps he completed. The Portuguese driver finished the race 1.108 seconds behind Marco Pizzici, the session leader.

Arriving in Q1, the signs were not very encouraging and were confirmed, as the Portuguese driver finished only ninth in Q1, leaving him in 19th place in the weekend’s races. The Portuguese set his best lap of 1:45.375 minutes, finishing 965 thousandths behind his fastest teammate Raul Fernandez.

There is still a 15-minute session before the sprint race, due to rain that fell on the track moments before the second quarter of the Moto3 race, so the race management decided to add this session so that the riders could experience the track in wet conditions. In that session, which took place on a track that was no longer as wet and which allowed drivers to finish on dry tyres, the Portuguese driver finished fourth with a time of 1:50.148 minutes, 1.131 seconds behind Jorge Martin.

In the sprint race, starting from 18th place (Alex Marquez was injured in Q1 and did not race for the rest of the weekend), the Portuguese made good use of the good start, climbing to 11th place, despite having to lose a position. , due to alleged overtaking at a yellow flag position. Since then, the Portuguese has been competing with Takaaki Nakagami and Augusto Fernandes, ranging between 11th and 13th places. The Portuguese finished 12th behind Fernandes and ahead of Nakagami, with a good start to mitigate a poor qualifying and a difficult weekend.