With the first Free Practice in the Qatari sunshine and FP2 under the impressive floodlight of the Losail International Circuit, the MotoGP class initiated a new season today, which marks the official beginning of the mostly fresh formed Red Bull KTM Tech3 team.
Premier class rookie Miguel Oliveira showed some promising potential on his first day aboard the KTM RC16 finishing inside the top 20 after improving by 0.426 seconds from the first to the second session. Malaysian star Hafizh Syahrin meanwhile lowered his lap time from FP1 to FP2 by 0.744 seconds and can’t wait to be back on track for the third Free Practice session tomorrow at 15.15 local time (13.15 CET). Yet, the all-important first Qualifying of the year is set to commence at 20.00 local time (18.00 CET).
Miguel Oliveira
Position: 20th
Time: 1:55.635
Laps: 34
“Today was quite tricky at the end. We knew that FP2 was going to be important and everyone was pushing to get a fast lap but finally, we couldn’t take out the full profit of the tyre we had. We are trying to understand what we can improve on the bike to gain more drive out of the corners, which seems to be the thing, that is holding us back more. But I trust that tomorrow we still can do a good FP3 and maybe be a little bit more in front. For sure, we are far from Q2, but we are going to try the maximum to be closer.”
Hafizh Syahrin
Position: 22nd
Time: 1:56.437
Laps: 29
“This first day was a bit difficult for me. This morning I lost the front on the second lap and I couldn’t understand why this happened. I tried to come back step by step and finally FP2 was a lot better. But for me it is really not easy to stop the bike in the middle of the corner, so overall the turning is my weak point at the moment. Anyway, together with the team we will work harder, trying to understand everything and always look forward to improve.”
