Miguel Oliveira achieves best result of the season in Brno practice
Miguel Oliveira (KTM) today achieved the best result of the MotoGP season in free practice by being fourth fastest in the first of two sessions of the Czech Republic GP.
The Portuguese rider took the time of 1.57.018 minutes, just 99 thousandths behind Italian Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), who was the fastest of the session, and the Spaniards Marc Márquez (Honda) and Maverick Viñales (Yamaha), respectively.
However, in the afternoon session, Miguel Oliveira was only 13th in the table, although he even improved his morning record to 1.56,732 minutes.
These results made Almada the fastest of the four KTM riders at Brno.
In fact, the two bikes of the official team, Factory Racing Team, had the most modest results of the four. Frenchman Johann Zarco was 20th and Spaniard Paul Espargaró was 22nd, who had been the best of the Austrian brand riders in the previous nine rounds.
“Overall it was a good start to the weekend. We did a great job in the morning and got a really good time. We also didn’t expect to be so fast in the afternoon as we were the first to use new tires early in the morning while the our opponents did it in the afternoon, “explained Miguel Oliveira, pointing out the reason for the drop in qualifying.
Still, Oliveira considers himself “happy”, although he admits he is “losing a little in the second sector [of the track]”.
“But for the moment our goal is to find a good compromise for the race. We hope to get a good qualification on Saturday,” he said.
The Czech Republic GP is the tenth race of the season, the first after the summer break.
Miguel Oliveira is 18th in the MotoGP championship, with 15 points.
