Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) finished fifth in the sprint race of the Spanish MotoGP Grand Prix, the fourth round of the World Speed Championship, on Saturday.
The Portuguese, who started from seventh on the grid, crossed the finish line in the second race of the year 1.638 seconds behind the winner, South African Brad Binder (KTM), who repeated the victory already achieved in Argentina.
Defending champion Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) was second at 0.428 seconds, with Australian Jack Miller (KTM) in third, having led for practically the entire race.
The race was marked by an accident involving four riders in the first corner, forcing red flags to be raised and riders to restart on the grid.
Miguel Oliveira had a good first start and was already fifth when the red flags were shown.
Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha), Alex Márquez (Ducati), Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati) and Augusto Fernández (GasGas) were the riders involved in the accident, which began with a collision between the youngest of the Márquez brothers and the Italian-Brazilian Franco Morbidelli. The rest were trapped in motorcycle carambola.
Miguel Oliveira passed the Spaniard Dani Pedrosa (KTM), who is participating in this race as a guest rider, and took advantage of the fall of also Spaniard Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), who lost the front of his bike.
After leading for practically the entire race, Jack Miller was overtaken by his teammate, Brad Binder, with three laps to go. He made a mistake when he failed to brake a lap later and lost second place to the champion in the title.
Marco Bezzecchi’s ninth-place finish allowed the Italian rider of Valentino Rossi’s team to score a point and maintain the championship lead with 65 points, three more than Bagnaia.
Today’s fifth place equals the result the Portuguese driver had already achieved in the Algarve, at the opening of the championship, at the Portuguese GP.
The feature race will be held on Sunday, for which Aleix Espargaró returns from pole position, while Miguel Oliveira will start from seventh on the grid.
Source: DN
