Miguel Oliveira qualifies eleventh on Mugello Moto3 grid

Less happy with today than yesterday was Miguel Oliveira, who placed eleventh in qualifying at Mugello. He will start from the fourth row of the grid after missing out on a slipstream.

The three Red Bull KTM Ajo riders took an important step forward in the final practice session of the weekend, the trio improving their times from yesterday.

Oliveira, second with a time of 1:57.592, led the way for much of the 40 minutes, setting a great pace with a single-stop strategy. Binder was seventh with a 1:58.010 lap and felt comfortable with his new setup, whilst Hanika —the fastest rider in the early stages— concluded sixteenth with a 1:58.671.

Oliveira continued to occupy the top positions during qualifying, but in the latter part of the session the Portuguese was relegated to eleventh place with a time of 1:57.657. Oliveira set his best lap in the final minutes, but the time was disallowed as he was deemed to have exceeded the limits of the track.

The sixth Moto3 race of the year begins at 11:00am local time on Sunday.

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“Today’s result in the qualifying session was not what we thought we could get. At the beginning of the session we were at the head of the timesheets, but there was a moment in which we had to try to get a slipstream and improve our times and I didn’t manage it. Then I had my best lap cancelled. I’m a little upset by this and tomorrow I will have to make a comeback.
I have a good pace, but here this does not count for much in Moto3 because you are easily overtaken if someone gets a slipstream. We will fight hard and hopefully we can achieve the result we deserve.”

Source: Ajo