At the age of 28, and after four seasons with KTM, Miguel Oliveira is on his way to his fifth world championship in MotoGP with a new bike, a new team and the old ambition to “become world champion”. Headlining Malaysian Razlan Razali’s new team, the pompous CryptoData Aprilia RNF, the Portuguese driver will aim for the final top 10 and the sprint races, a novelty for the season starting today (free practice) at the Portimão circuit.
The indications given during the tests, from Valencia to Portimão and passing Sepang, raised some expectations to understand what the Portuguese could do in the factory team of the Italian giant. To begin with, on Sunday I would like to repeat the 2020 triumph on the roller coaster of Portimão, but “being realistic” he pointed to the podium. “The first thing I thought about when I heard that the championship was starting in Portugal was of course winning the race. It will be a challenge, but I will try to do my best,” emphasized the Portuguese, who won the Spaniard Raúl Fernandez as a teammate.
The driver from Almada is one of 13 in the field with Grand Prix victories. In four seasons in MotoGP, Miguel Oliveira has won five (two in 2020, in Styria and Portimão, one in 2021, in Catalonia, and two in 2022, in Indonesia and Thailand). If he wins a race this season, he will become one of three riders to win with different manufacturers, with Australian Jack Miller (KTM) and Spaniard Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) becoming the only ones to record wins with three brands.
Oliveira relies on this experience to get the best out of the new machine. And according to some experts, Aprilia even has the second best bike in the paddock – Yamaha, Honda and KTM have all failed – and is only surpassed by the many Ducatis… such as champion Pecco Bagnaia. In the Portimão tests there were seven Ducatis in the first eight positions.
Marc Márquez (seven-time champion) continues to excel in a peloton of 22 riders and only one rookie: Augusto Fernandez. It was a bad fall for the Spaniard, which has left him injured to this day, followed by a pandemic (covid-19) that changed the face of MotoGP, which until then had been completely dominated by the Spanish prodigy.
In the last three years there have been three new world champions – Joan Mir, Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia – and three different brands that have triumphed – Suzuki, Yamaha and Ducati. For this year there is some expectation as to what Márquez will be able to do and this will also depend on Honda’s season.
Sprint races earn points
The big news this season are the sprint races on Saturday, which divide points and want to give more emotion to the weekends and not just to the Sunday races.
The idea came from failure. Dorna Sports, owner of MotoGP, interrupted the filming of the second season of the MotoGP Unlimited documentary due to the lack of public interest and later launched a global and exhaustive survey of fans to appreciate the sport, attract more sponsorship and improve the global exposure. It received over 100,000 comments and the majority asked for fast and spectacular races identical to those tested in F1 and in force in the Superbike World Championship since 2019.
The starting grid is still determined in qualifying, keeping the format. But for the first time since 2006, the World Cup will start outside Qatar. Honor to Portugal and the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, in Portimão, where from today the two-wheeled engines begin to roar and the longest world championship in history begins with 21 races. The checkered flag of the World Cup will be displayed in Valencia on November 26.
The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA) is expected to host “more than 150,000 spectators” at the Portuguese Grand Prix this weekend, “with the greatest concentration, of course, on Sunday, with more than 60,000 people,” said Fencing CEO Paulo Pinheiro.
The race is a real tourist attraction. Turismo do Algarve expects 65,000 tourists in the region for the race. Partly for this reason, from today to Sunday, the National Republican Guard will implement a special device to ensure the safety of all those involved in the event and the regular flow of the main access roads to the Algarve and the circuit complex itself. The organization guarantees transfers to the circuit from Portimão and Lagos.
Source: DN
