The Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (KTM) admitted this Friday that the choice of tires conditioned his performance on the first day of free practice for the MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season, in which he was 17th.
In statements to Sport TV, quoted by his press office, the Almada driver admitted that “it was a strange day.”
“We opted for the strategy of not putting new tires at the end of the first free practices. But the truth is that we did not expect all this rain in the afternoon either. It was a bit unexpected in that sense, but we cannot control that. we can control it, we adapt, we did that”, stressed the Portuguese rider.
Even so, Miguel Oliveira acknowledges that during the afternoon he felt “a little better” with the bike, which “gives him more confidence” for Saturday’s qualifying.
“Today does not take away our confidence, since the [Brad] Binder, on the used tire, was a bit slower than me. With the new one, he was able to take that step forward. That leaves us a bit more relaxed when it comes to the fastest lap. I think that tomorrow (Saturday) we will walk much faster than we walked this morning”, underlined Miguel Oliveira.
The third free practice session, scheduled for Saturday morning, must be held in the dry and will be essential to guarantee direct classification to the second qualifying phase (Q2) and a place among the top 12 on the grid.
“In the afternoon we already have a more uncertain forecast… What is certain is that, if it rains, it will be the rain that fell this afternoon, that is, everything will be delayed again and we will have to carry out training a little later”, warned.
Delays in the course of training, as happened this Friday due to the rain, do not bother the Portuguese rider.
“With delays, we have a little more time, we have to keep drinking water, hydration, food, make all this adaptation to train a little later. I believe that these changes do not bring any factor that has to be worked on with a different psychological approach, but we have to be ready to leave [para a pista] at any time,” stresses the KTM rider.
Source: TSF
