The Portuguese pilot Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) was sixth this Saturday in the sprint race of the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix, the 11th round of the Motorcycle World Championship.
The Almada rider finished the 12 laps 4,940 seconds behind the winner, the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), who overtook the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) by 1,989 seconds, with the Spanish Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) third, 2,040 behind.
Miguel Oliveira started from third place on the grid, but found himself devoured by the pack, dropping to seventh on the first lap.
But, two laps later, he was already fifth, the position in which he ran for most of the race, until he was passed by the Spaniard Jorge Martín (Ducati) when the curtain fell.
The day even started badly for the Portuguese rider, with a crash during free practice in the morning, in a session that he ended up leading.
Oliveira was also fastest in Q1, the first qualifying session, beating Spaniard Marc Márquez (Honda) by 0.281 seconds.
First part of the job done perfectly for Aleix
Aprilia achieves its first double podium in the category #MotoGP was! #GPdeCatalan pic.twitter.com/IKdMcNT7bX
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) September 2, 2023
The two went on to Q2, where the Portuguese rider was third, 0.109 seconds behind the author of the ‘pole position’, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), and only 0.005 seconds behind the second, Aleix Espargaró, in what was his best classification since that comes to Aprilia. .
With these results, Bagnaia consolidates his lead in the Drivers’ Championship, now with 260 points, compared to Jorge Martín’s 194, who is second.
Miguel Oliveira maintains 15th place, with 44 points.
The main race of this eleventh race of the season will take place on Sunday.
Source: TSF
