Strong 6th for Oliveira in Aragón, Lecuona equals best MotoGP outcome in 9th

Although he came off the line well, Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira lost two places in the opening lap of the Gran Premio de Teruel, but started his comeback in the second half of the race, making up position by position. The Portuguese was even fighting for the top 5, but eventually had to settle for sixth, which saw him gaining important championship points after a tough first round in Aragón.

At the same time, Iker Lecuona started from 11th, which was his best grid position to date, after reaching Q2 for the very first time. He battled hard to stay inside the top 12 and moved up to P10 with six laps to go. The MotoGP World Championship rookie eventually crossed the line in ninth, equaling his personal best premier class result so far he scored in Austria a few months ago.

Miguel Oliveira:

“I’m happy about my race. I felt I could have been a bit more in front, at least in fifth place. But it was quite hard for me to overtake, I took some time, as it was not easy. I felt strong, competitive and I think it was a great comeback from last weekend. It was a consistent and very good weekend for us with eighth place on the grid and sixth place in the race, so I think we did our job. We need to be satisfied, although for sure, we could have achieved a better result. But we need to take this as a positive and carry it on to the last three races in November.”

Iker Lecuona:

“Obviously I’m very happy about today. I had a strong Warm Up, so I knew it would be possible for the top 10. In the first laps of the race, I was fighting a lot with many riders, whereby I also did some mistakes, like one time I tried to overtake, but went far, so I lost contact to the big group ahead of me. But lap by lap, I tried to recover and tenth by tenth I finally caught them again. I felt really strong and I have the feeling that I could have even finished further in front. Eventually I was ninth again, which equals my best results, so it’s a decent one. I want to dedicate this great result to Kylian and his family.”