Raul Fernandez ‘lucky to be ok after stupid crash, rookie mistake’
Raul Fernandez was left disappointed with himself after a ‘rookie mistake’ early on at the Portuguese MotoGP.
Raul Fernandez crashed out of the Portimao grand prix which means the Spaniard remains scoreless through the opening two MotoGP rounds of 2024.
With points to be had following a raft of early and late crashes, Fernandez instead committed his own mistake which left him furious with himself.
Fernandez crashed out of the grand prix on lap four moments after moving up to 14th position.
“I’m lucky that I’m ok,” said Fernandez. “It was honestly a very stupid crash, a rookie mistake. During the track walk I told my crew chief that you need to be calm in this corner when you get a bit offline and I actually didn’t manage to do that.
“Until then, I felt good with the bike, I had a good pace, I did a 39.2 in one lap. But maybe I was a bit too ambitious at the beginning of the race.
“I saw we had the pace, I was closing and I was there but I made the mistake. I would like to say sorry to the team.
“It’s not nice to start the season like this, but this is just the beginning. For sure, we have more opportunities and in two weeks we are at COTA, a track I really like.
“So, we should forget this Sunday now and focus on the US.”
While Fernandez failed to take advantage of the mishaps for others ahead, team-mate Miguel Oliveira did just that as he secured a top ten finish at his home round.
Oliveira said: “It was what I could do. The opening lap and the first few corners have been quite ok.
“I managed to overtake Rins and Quartararo and I was on course to a top 10 finish, ninth place without crashes.
“But unfortunately, when Bezzecchi overtook me in the first corner, he took me a little bit wide and I had to stop the bike and go around the whole turn one and two, where I lost three positions.
“It’s a real shame because with all the crashes, we could have finished in P6, which would have been very uplifting this weekend.
“But we have to take the positives; in the race, it was the best bike I rode during the weekend. I could fight, be competitive and do something in terms of results.
“It’s definitely another starting point to build up from here so, hopefully, in Texas we can continue the progression.”
