Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) abandoned the feature race of the Spanish MotoGP Grand Prix this Sunday after being hit by Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) in the second corner of the race.
RED FLAG
Fabio Quartararo beats Miguel Oliveira and the Portuguese is out of the big race
Falcão had to leave the track by ambulance #sporttvportugal #MOTOGPnaSPORTTV #MotoGP #SpanishGP #Miguel Oliveira #FabioQuartararo pic.twitter.com/59xcS7aMHq
– SPORTTV (@SPORTTVPortugal) April 30, 2023
The race was stopped due to the incident between the two drivers, who were assisted in the breakaway.
The Portuguese rider was transported to the medical center of the Andalusian circuit of Jerez de la Frontera for examination. Later, speaking to Sport TV in Jerez, doctor Franco Peroni explained that Miguel Oliveira had suffered a dislocation in “the end of the humerus of his left arm”.
“At the moment he is doing well, he is on oxygen to make him as comfortable as possible. He is lightly sedated, he has suffered a dislocation of the end of the humerus in his left arm, which has been successfully replaced,” explained he out.
This is the Portuguese rider’s second retirement in four races, after the GP of Portugal, in the opening race of the championship, after being hit by Spaniard Marc Márquez (Honda).
Seven of Oliveira’s 12 takedowns were caused by opponents
According to MotoGP statistics, Miguel Oliveira has had 12 crashes in a race since 2019, the year of his first season in the championship’s premier class, seven of them caused by opponents touching him.
In 2019, while in his rookie season, still riding the Tech3 KTM, the Portuguese rider collided with Frenchman Johann Zarco (KTM) at the British Grand Prix. The crash caused an injury to the Portuguese driver’s right shoulder, which he was not able to overcome until the end of the season.
In 2020, during the GP of Andalusia, Oliveira was again hit by a fellow manufacturer. In this case it was South African Brad Binder (KTM) who left the Almada pilot out of the race.
That same year, Spaniard Pol Espargaró, another KTM rider, a brand Miguel Oliveira raced for until 2022, collided with the Portuguese rider at the Austrian GP. The incident would eventually lead to an altercation between the two, with the Portuguese taking the view that not everyone had “intelligence” on top of the motorcycle.
The truth is that a year later, in 2021, again at the Austrian GP, and again Pol Espargaró (already at Honda), hit the Portuguese rider’s bike, causing him to crash.
Worse happened at the Algarve GP of the same year 2021, the penultimate race of the championship. Once again, a colleague of the brand, Spaniard Iker Lecuona, was responsible for leaving Miguel Oliveira on the ground.
The Portuguese rider even had to leave the track on a stretcher, as happened this afternoon after Fabio Quartararo collided with his Aprilia and that had already happened at the Portuguese GP.
The other five crashes the Portuguese rider suffered during MotoGP races happened without third party intervention.
Miguel Oliveira withdrew from the 2021 Styrian GP again due to technical problems with his bike’s front tyre.
In 2019, Miguel Oliveira also missed the races in Australia, Malaysia and Valencia (the last three of the championship) due to an injury to his right shoulder, aggravated by a fall during practice for the Australian GP caused by a gust of wind.
Francesco Bagnaia wins
Victory in Sunday’s race went to Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who took the lead in the championship.
Bagnaia, defending champion, completed the 24 laps around the Angel Nieto circuit, in Jerez de la Frontera, with a time of 39.29.085 minutes, 0.221 seconds ahead of South African Brad Binder (KTM), who finished second , and 1.119 seconds on Australian Jack Miller (KTM), who was third.
Bagnaia took advantage of the withdrawal of Italy’s Marco Bezzechi (Ducati) to lead the championship by 22 points over his compatriot. Binder is third at 25.
(updated at 3:30pm with race results)
Source: DN
