Luck deserts Miguel Oliveira with start line clutch failure in Argentina

The Argentine GP was a cruel race for Miguel Oliveira – the young Portuguese left stranded on the start line with a minor but costly technical issue.

The sinuous new Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in the Argentinean hinterland seemed at first to favour the sweet-handling Mahindra MGP3O, but circumstances conspired against hopes of another good finish in the points.

Miguel Oliveira qualified for a fifth row start. The Portuguese star had gone from the fourth row to fourth place, inches from the podium, at Qatar, but his hopes of a repeat run were dashed on the start line, when his clutch suffered a rare failure.

Mahindras nonetheless featured in the points table, with the customer bikes of Alessandro Tonucci (CIP) and Brad Binder (Ambrogio Racing) claiming 13th and 14th places.

Renato Fenati (KTM) won a close and exciting race at the fast and scenic circuit, at the first GP in Argentina in 15 years.
The next race – round four of 17 – is at Jerez in Spain, in one week’s time.

MIGUEL OLIVEIRA – Did Not Finish
It was the clutch, and I could not start – this is the reality. We need to fix this problem. We have improved this year, but also all the others have improved, so we need to improve more. I hope Jerez could be a better weekend. The winter tests were not so bad there.

Source: Mahindra Racing