The rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) considered this Tuesday that the next stage of the MotoGP championship, the weekend in Japan, could be complicated, on a track “outside the motorcycling style”, with “a lot of sudden braking and slow corners.”
“It may be a complicated weekend, but last year the bike didn’t perform badly at all,” Miguel Oliveira told Lusa from Tokyo, where he participated in an event at the Portuguese embassy in Japan.
“So I’m holding back my hopes a little in that regard,” said the Portuguese, currently in 13th place in the World Cup, with 69 points, highlighting that he is willing to “always do the best I can.”
Without wanting to take stock of the season yet, since he believes that there are still some races on the calendar in which one can be “very competitive”, Miguel Oliveira considered that, until now, “the ingredient of luck” was missing. referring to “bad luck at the beginning” of the championship, with injuries suffered in races in Portugal (Portimão) and Spain (Jerez de la Frontera).
“In the races where I raced injured it was just to try to adapt and spend time with the team and the bike, even though I knew the result would not be at all what I could achieve,” he said.
Regarding the future champion, the Portuguese rider considered that there are many points left to distribute “so that things are more lively” in the fight for the title, which is currently led by the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), in first place in the standings. , the Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati), in second place, and the Italian Marco Bezzechi (Ducati), in third place.
Miguel Oliveira participated in a meeting promoted by the Portuguese embassy in Tokyo, with representatives of motorcycle companies, journalists and fans, within the framework of the commemoration program of the 480th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese to the Japanese island of Tanegashima, in 1543. .
The fourteenth round of the championship will take place this weekend at the Japanese Motegi circuit.
Source: TSF
