Bitter pill to swallow as Oliveira and Fernandez record double DNF at #AustrianGP

Not just the sun was brightly shining on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, but also both CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Aprilias in pink and blue colors for CryptoDATA’s special title event. Yet the CryptoDATA Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich was definitely not what the team was hoping for as both, Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez have been forced to end the 28 laps race prematurely due to technical issues.

With good signs from practice sessions and a strong eighth position on the grid, Oliveira has been unlucky already yesterday to be kicked out from the Sprint Race on the first corner. For the main event today, he didn’t have an ideal start, but managed to navigate through and was in 13th position after the first lap.

He progressed to P12 on lap two and just started to come into a rhythm but went suddenly backwards on lap six. He came into the garage with missing weights on his front rim, which made his bike unridable, means he had to retire and miss out on another great chance for a decent result.

Fernandez meanwhile lost four places at the start on Sunday’s long race and crossed the line in P20 after lap one. The Spaniard was pushing hard and moved up to 19th around halftime through the long and scorching race. Gritting his teeth until the end, Fernandez like his teammate didn’t have a chance to finish the race and came in after the penultimate lap with the same issue like Oliveira.

The CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team leaves Austria disappointed, but focusing on round 11 already in less than a fortnight at the Circuit the Barcelona-Catalunya, which is going to herald the second half of the 2023 season.

RAUL FERNANDEZ

Today we were unlucky. The pace from yesterday was impossible to manage because I had no rear grip from the beginning. I lost a lot of time from the start, I couldn’t do any late braking, there was a lot of spinning and I kept going wide. The issue with the rear grip was really hard to handle. Then on the last lap, I tried to brake again and I went wide, so I decided to stop the race.

MIGUEL OLIVEIRA

I was fast for the weekend, but we had a little issue during the race, a strange issue to be honest. It was a very simple detail but it made me retire, the weights to calliper the front wheel came off and as an effect, I could not hold enough pressure on the brakes because of the vibration and I had to retire early due to that.