Fernandez fightback, Oliveira ‘split-second decision’ when Morbidelli fell

After failing to score points in Qatar and Portimao, Raul Fernandez made amends with a pair of top ten finishes at COTA.

The Trackhouse Aprilia rider took ninth place in the Sprint, then had to fight back from ‘almost last’ in the Grand Prix before holding off team-mate Miguel Oliveira for tenth place.

“I’m very happy to end this race in a good way,” Fernandez said. “First of all, I’m back feeling very comfortable on the bike, which is the key to go fast.

“We know that it’s very important to be in a good position in the first two laps in MotoGP and at the beginning of the race, I was almost at the back of the field.

“It was difficult to manage that, tricky to conserve the front tyre with the slipstream. I was pushing a lot and trying to overtake the other riders so a top 10 is a good result for us but, of course, we want more and we know there is a margin.

“We saw that our bike is working very well but, we take it step by step. After the first two disappointing rounds of this season, we are in the points now and this is great.”

Oliveira, riding the factory-spec 2024 machine, saw his race compromised when he took evasive action to avoid a fallen Franco Morbidelli.

“I had the feeling that the result could have been very different, but I got caught up with Morbidelli, making me lose a lot of time and like four or five places,” said Oliveira, who was 12th at the time.

“After he crashed, his bike went across the track. It was a split-second decision whether I go inside and risk hitting him or go to the outside and try to avoid him, as his bike was coming towards me.

“That was the incident that really destroyed my chances to do better.

“The pace was not bad, I closed back to the group and started to overtake as soon as I could without losing much time. In the last three laps, I was already really tired and I couldn’t attack Raul to make it a top 10 finish.”

Team principal Davide Brivio felt COTA was a turning point for Trackhouse, adding that factory Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales’ double victory was also a source of inspiration.

“First of all, congratulations to Maverick! It’s nice to see an Aprilia on top. This gives us a lot of motivation and shows that we have a great bike,” Brivio said.

“Regarding Trackhouse, I’m happy about this weekend because we could see progress and improvements on both sides.

“I think and I hope this is the beginning to get more and more into the fight.”