Oliveira equals best ever MotoGP result, Lecuona beaten by the Jerez heat

Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira delivered a fantastic opening to the season today with equaling his best ever MotoGP result from Austria 2019, finishing well inside the top 8 of the premier class. Yet, Iker Lecuona likewise showed an amazing performance at the Gran Premio Red Bull de España, until he had to give up due to physical conditions.

With a long wait, the 2020 MotoGP World Championship season finally got underway today in scorching hot weather conditions at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto. Starting from P15 on the grid, Oliveira did a great job to improve on his position in the course of the race, being 13th after lap one and getting closer to the top 10 before half time of the 25 laps heat battle. The Portuguese star eventually emerged in eight position on the line to reach his best ever result aboard the KTM RC16 again. At the same time, Lecuona, launching off from the final position, made great progress in the first half of the race, following his teammate and being well placed in P12. Unfortunately, due to the incredible temperatures, he decided to enter the pit with five laps to go.

Miguel Oliveira

“It was a very, very happy ending of this weekend. After struggling a little bit in the practices, I think we deserved this good result. To start the season with a top 10 is better than we expected. For sure, we still have a lot of work to do for the next race, but I’m glad for my performance, the way the team came back after a difficult Qualifying, so I am really, really happy to give this result to the team. They deserve it. It’s also my first race after Motegi in October last year. I’m just happy and hope we can improve next weekend.”

Iker Lecuona

“To be honest, I already regret my decision to return to the garage. It was only five laps to go, I should have just taken a bit of speed out and try to finish the race, as the points would have been in reach anyway. I missed out on what could have been a possible top 10 result, but I felt really dizzy and didn’t want to risk to crash or put someone else in danger, so I stopped. Before that, I was quite strong, managed to be close to Miguel all the time and fought all the race with Petrucci. So, I’m even more disappointed now.”