Forceful 5th for Oliveira in #CatalanGP, DNF for Fernandez

The CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team delivered a strong weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to start the second half of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship. Yet, the main race on Sunday has been an eventful one right from the word go. Due to a crash of multiple riders, it was red flagged. Luckily both CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team riders haven’t been involved. The race was later restarted with 23 laps.

Miguel Oliveira had a decent start to be fourth after the first lap, starting from P3 on the grid. He showed some incredible opening laps and even progressed to third on the fourth lap. But once his tyres wore down, he couldn’t really keep his strong pace and lost two positions from lap 10 onwards. Nevertheless, the Portuguese rider kept his head down and eventually crossed the finish line in fifth position, taking home 11 points.

On the other side, Raul Fernandez didn’t get off the line very well and found himself down in P19 in the first sector after starting from 15th. In a strong manner, he was already back in P16 by the end of lap one. Just two laps later, he was back in his starting position and moved further up to P12 in the fifth lap of the race – a position that he managed to hold onto until lap 10 where he suffered a technical problem and had to return to the garage.

In just a few days, the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team will be preparing their garage once again at the World Circuit Misano – Marco Simoncelli, marking the penultimate round on European soil this year before the season finale in Valencia this November.

MIGUEL OLIVEIRA

For the first seven or eight laps I was doing well, then it was quite hard to hold on Jorge (Martin) and Johann (Zarco) in the last few laps. My front tyre was destroyed on the right side, something we more or less expected for this long race. Also the rear dropped as everyone else did and it was difficult to save the tyre. But overall, I have to take the positives, it was a good weekend and we were fast. Also in the race, with all these difficulties, we could still fight for top five and be in third place for a couple of laps is not bad at all. I’m walking away to Misano with a good feeling and motivation to start working there.

RAUL FERNANDEZ

The beginning of the race was difficult for us. Our start was bad, which we need to improve as I lost a lot of time there. You need to overtake and you lose time and it slows down your pace. But honestly, I’m happy that I managed to save the front tyre, I was preparing for the last part of the race. Our tyre was good but we had this technical issue and I couldn’t do anything about it. Anyway, Aprilia did a fantastic job and the factory boys did an amazing race, I’m happy for them as they worked really hard for that. We have their data and when we have two fast riders like them, we can improve and knowing that definitely delights me.