While the two drivers dominate the category in each race and a first match point was possible this weekend for the title, both produced a poor performance.
Since the start of the season, the strong men of Moto2 are undeniably Francesco Bagnaia et Miguel Oliveira, and the Championship makes no mistake: the title has been between them for several races now, and leans in favor of the Italian who arrived at Phillip Island with 37 points ahead of the Portuguese.
If they started their weekend well by taking exactly the same position in FP1 and FP2 (fourth for Bagnaia and fifth for Oliveira), things started to get complicated for the Italian at the time of FP3 where he did not was able to do better than eighteenth, while his rival finished third. However, it got worse for him also in qualifying, and both missed out completely.
Francesco Bagnaia therefore started from sixteenth place this Sunday, and Miguel Oliveira from twentieth. Although they both managed to get back into the top 10 in the middle of the race, they gave up at the end to finish eleventh and twelfth, to the advantage of Oliveira who, however, only took one point back. Bagnaia. The race therefore counted as a wild card and restarts the award of the title to this weekend in Malaysia. Is it due to pressure? Neither mentioned it in their statements.
Miguel Oliveira : “We had high expectations from this weekend after the result we got last year. I never felt comfortable. We made small changes to improve my feeling, but it made me lose a bit of confidence on the bike, especially with the front. It's a shame that we couldn't take advantage of this opportunity to significantly reduce the gap in the Championship, but we have to stay calm, get the most out of each race and focus on Malaysia, a circuit where it had worked well last year for us. I thank the team for all the work they have put in. We are still in the running for the title and we will continue to attack, that's the most important thing. »
Francis Bagnaia : “It was a really tough weekend. We started well on Friday, but from FP3 something didn't work anymore. Maybe it was the weather, maybe the temperatures, but I had no rear grip and I couldn't ride the way I wanted. We need to analyze the data and understand what happened in order to be ready for the next race in Malaysia, a track that I like. »
