At the end of the three free practice sessions, Miguel Oliveira had achieved a modest nineteenth time in the combined ranking of the three sessions, 1.532 behind Fabio Quartararo's best time. The qualification did not appear to be the easiest, which the Lusitanian subsequently confirmed, despite his meritorious efforts.
After a wet morning session, then partially dry, the pilot Red Bull KTM Tech3 qualified this Saturday afternoon at the Chang International Circuit during a hot and humid qualifying session. Miguel Oliveira achieved his best lap of the weekend so far.
While Oliveira missed out on a possible Q2 qualification by 0.543 seconds after an adventurous Friday, he will start his fifteenth MotoGP race from the sixth row of the starting grid.
He finished in seventeenth position with a time of 1'31.499.
The Portuguese driver is eager to produce a decent race when the red lights go out at 14:00 p.m. local time (9:00 a.m. French time) on Sunday.
According to Miguel Oliveira, who are " To be honest, it wasn't the best possible qualification for us. All weekend we struggled with the rear brake. Therefore, I couldn't go as fast as I wanted. »
“I am quite disappointed with this small detail which costs us a few tenths. It's not ideal, but as always, we will do our best tomorrow in the race. »
This point of view was a little reminiscent of that of the day before for Miguel: “We started the day with a pretty heavy fall. Fortunately, it was without consequences. In the second practice session we didn't have the best feeling, to be honest, and I had another small crash in the last corner. All in all, it was a tough day, but we're not that far behind the others. »
Qualification results:
Reference times:
Former test record: 1'30.031 by Marc Márquez (Honda) in 2018 in Q1
Lap record: 1'31.471 by Marc Márquez (Honda) in 2018
Best top speed: 330,4 km/h by Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati in 1998)
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1.Marc Marquez 300 points. 2. Dovizioso 202. 3. Rins 156. 4. Petrucci 155. 5. Viñales 147. 6. Rossi 137. 7. Quartararo 123. 8. Miller 117. 9. Crutchlow 98. 10. Morbidelli 80 11. Pol Espargaró 77. 12. Nakagami 68. 13. Mir 49. 14. Aleix Espargaró 46. 15. Iannone 32. 16. Bagnaia 29. 17. Oliveira 29. 18. Zarco 27. 19. Lorenzo 23. 20. Rabat 18. 21. Bradl 16.
Photos © Red Bull KTM Tech3
