Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) revealed that “there is nothing that justifies the crash” he suffered on Sunday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the 18th and third-to-last race of the season.
“Unfortunately I crashed in turn nine. I lost the front earlier than what is normally the limit for steering lock. We looked at the data and there is nothing that can explain the crash,” Miguel Oliveira explained.
However, on the first lap the Portuguese rider received a touch from his teammate, Spaniard Raúl Fernández, which broke one of the wings on the left side of the Almada-born rider’s bike.
“The wing was completely torn off and this led to some imbalance and major problems in stopping the motorcycle,” he said.
Oliveira acknowledged that he already knew he would have “a difficult race” ahead of him as it was “difficult or even almost impossible to overtake”.
However, the Portuguese driver emphasized that the team “does not give up easily” and hopes to recover “already in Qatar”.
“We are going to a circuit with a new surface and at a completely different time of year [à que os pilotos estão habituados, em março] and we hope to prove ourselves competitively,” he concluded.
The Portuguese rider was overtaken in the rankings by the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati), who won today’s race, both with 76 points.
Bastianini spent 39.59.137 minutes to complete the 20 laps, leaving Spaniard Alex Marquez (Ducati) in second place, at 1.535 seconds, and Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) in third place, at 3,562.
Bagnaia extended his World Championship lead to 14 points with two races remaining as Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati) could not get further than fourth.
Source: DN
