Tough #ItalianGP sees Fernandez finish in 17th as Oliveira crashes out
Coming back from injuries, Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira faced a challenging day at the Italian Grand Prix. Despite not yet being at their 100% fitness, both CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team riders grit their teeth to do the complete weekend with all Practice sessions, Qualifying, the Sprint and the main Race as best as possible.
Following a decent start on Friday, Fernandez had two quite heavy falls on Saturday, which caused him to lose confidence. In today’s race, beginning from P19 on the grid, he initially lost a few positions at the start but managed to regain them during the first lap. Within each lap, Fernandez was improving on his place, and even made it into the points scoring positions in the second half of the race. Unfortunately, he was losing strength and didn’t feel well on the final laps, which made him drop back to P17.
Meanwhile, Oliveira tried his best to come back to racing this weekend. He was doing well and adapting his riding style to his injury, trying to keep it up through the pain. He launched off from P17 and was inside the top 15 in just two laps. On the sixth lap, the Portuguese star was already in P13 and had a decent pace, but unluckily crashed just five laps later in Arrabbiata two.
Now, there’s just a few days to rest for the riders and the entire CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team, before starting the second leg of the triple header with round seven in Sachsenring, Germany.
RAUL FERNANDEZ
I am really happy with the condition of my arm. Day by day on the bike I felt super good and we improved a lot. But today, after yesterday’s crash I felt very bad in the race. At the beginning, I was behind Maverick (Viñales) and Miguel and we were catching up to Aleix (Espargaro) on some laps, I’m not sure why but in the middle of the race I was starting to feel bad but was still trying to push more. At one moment of the race, I felt really bad, I’m not sure if it’s due to the crash or for something I ate, but I vomited on the bike. I tried to end the race but I didn’t have any power left. In general my body was not good and I felt very tired. MotoGP is super competitive now, if you are not at 100% you wouldn’t be able to do it. In the end, I am happy but I want to say sorry to the team. In Sachsenring, we will try our best again. Riding here in Mugello I already felt very well and Sachsenring is a track, that I like.
MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
I‘m happy that I was back. It was a weekend where the progression was there. I had speed, I had the pace. I just couldn’t finish the race, which was a shame. I saw myself in a position where I could maybe challenge for the top 10 and I was very hopeful I could do it. At the end, this was my second long race this year and I’m happy that I managed to do at least half of it and be competitive. The good thing is, we have another race next weekend. Then we can hopefully turn things around and give the whole crew the result that they deserve.