Disappointing double DNF for Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez at #MalaysianGP

The Grand Prix of Malaysia has been the home round for CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Principal Razlan Razali and several other team members. Yet, the home glory failed to appear as both Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira after a tough weekend couldn’t finish the 20 laps race in scorching conditions at the Sepang International Circuit for different reasons.

Fernandez made some improvements throughout the hot weekend in Malaysia but couldn’t get any better than P18 on the grid for both races. After he finished the Sprint on Saturday in P17, the Spaniard launched off the main race again from row six on the grid and came off well to hold onto his 18th position in the initial stages of the race. He built up a consistent pace in the first laps and improved to P17 in lap five. But he had to stop the race in just the seventh lap with a technical issue.

Meanwhile, Oliveira was even more unlucky. The Portuguese qualified in 19th position on the grid. He brought home P18 after 10 laps in the Sprint of Saturday. On Sunday, he went backwards to P22 after the first few corners, but was in 19th place again at the end of lap one where he was fighting to keep up with the group ahead of him. While trying to gain some more meters, Oliveira unfortunately crashed in turn nine of the sixth lap.

For both, there is luckily not much time to regret, as the entire MotoGP paddock heads straight over to Doha, Qatar for round 19 of 2023 in just a few days’ time.

MIGUEL OLIVEIRA

Unfortunately I crashed in turn nine, I lost the front there a bit early than what I would normally feel as a limit on the front locking. We saw the data, there’s nothing that can really justify the crash. The only thing that came to mind is I touched with Raul a little bit in turn one and I broke the wing on the left side. It was completely off, so it created some imbalance and some difficulties to stop the bike. On the track we knew we had a hard race ahead of us, it was difficult or nearly impossible to overtake. We don’t give up and hopefully we can move past from this in Qatar. We’re going on a new tarmac on a completely different time of the season and hopefully we can turn up competitive there.

RAUL FERNANDEZ

Honestly we didn’t have the pace to be with the Ducati or to be in the top 10 at this circuit, it is difficult. We need to understand why we are in this situation, I think when we have a difficult weekend we need to do the kilometres to understand, but we couldn’t go until the end. I would like to say thank you to everyone who is working with me, the crew that I have around me is amazing, they work more than they should to make sure I have a good bike. I am the rider and I give my feedback and do my maximum, the team and myself have to work more to find some solutions.