Front row start for Miguel Oliveira at Aragon

Miguel Oliveira carried his confidence from yesterday into today’s qualifying, landing a second place start –his fifth front row start this season.

In addition to a front row start, the Portuguese has distinguished himself as one of the Moto3 riders with the best race pace.

Satisfied with their performance in the previous practice session, the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders prepared to lower their times for the third consecutive outing and set out their best laps. Miguel Oliveira was third in the session, with a 1:58.541 and was again among the riders with the fastest pace.

Oliveira swapped provisional first position throughout the session with teammate Brad Binder, who ended the session fifth with a 1:58.826. Karel Hanika made big strides to place tenth with a 1:59.266, and never left the top ten throughout the session.

With a lap of 1:57.955 with 16 minutes remaining in the final session, it seemed that the pole position for the Aragon GP would go to Miguel Oliveira, who shortly after was just two tenths off besting the time, without any slipstream.

However, it was after the fall of the checkered flag that the Italian rider Bastianini surpassed him by two tenths of a second.

Tomorrow’s race, beginning at 11:00 CET, will see the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders seeking a second consecutive podium following Miguel Oliveira’s Misano rostrum.

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“The practices have been very positive today. We managed to have a good pace. Without the soft tires I managed a lap of almost 1:57, this gives me confidence for the race tomorrow. It will be an interesting race with Kent, Bastianini and the other riders. We’ll try to break away, I’ll see if I can push hard and get a small group at the front, it would be very interesting but it sure will not be easy. I hope to get the KTM on the podium.”