Oliveira: 'Pol didn’t look…'

Miguel Oliveira seems to be something of a magnet to his fellow KTM riders.

Last year at Silverstone he was hit by Johann Zarco, causing a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery.

Then Oliveira was taken out of a best-ever MotoGP qualifying by Brad Binder at turn one of this year's Spanish Grand Prix.

And on Sunday he crashed out of a career-best result after tangling with fifth place Pol Espargaro in the Austrian MotoGP.

The Spaniard, who was struggling for rear grip after being forced to use a soft rather than medium rear tyre for the restart, ran wide under braking for Turn 4.

Oliveira took the inside line to pass but the pair collided on the exit, sending them both down and out.

"Pol was going wide in a couple of turns. In Turn 4 I was close to him and that time he went really wide. As a rider when I see a gap, especially a big one, I try to go for the overtake. Apparently, when he came [back] to the track he didn’t see me. That’s why we crashed," said Oliveira.

There had been suggestions Oliveira might have lost control of this Tech3 machine and then slid into Espargaro, but the #88 said the data proved otherwise. "We saw on the data for sure the crash was because of the impact I had from the back and from the outside of the bike," said the Portuguese.

Unlike in the Zarco-Espargaro incident a week earlier at Brno, the FIM Stewards did not issue any penalties and Espargaro felt it was 'exactly' a racing incident with Oliveira.

"We ran out of tyres so I did not have a new medium [for the restart]," explained Espargaro who had been leading when the first race was stopped due to the huge Zarco-Morbidelli accident. "We put a soft on the rear which was weak. It was completely useless on the brakes and I could not stop the bike.

"I was wide [in Turn 4] because I was going wide in all the corners and Miguel in that place was a little bit wide as well – we checked the data and it was like that.

"I was opening the throttle on the outside and he was on the inside, he couldn’t see me and I couldn’t see him, so we collided. This is exactly what we call a race incident.

"I was already on the white line so I couldn’t move and he said he couldn’t see me. I know Miguel and we have a very good relationship. I know every move he makes he thinks about and he if did it, then he thought it was a possible overtake, but in the end it finished like that."

Did Oliveira, later seen lashing out at the furniture in the Tech3 pits in frustration, agree it was a racing incident?

"I was very frustrated for the whole situation. It is the second time I crashed with a KTM bike, the third if we count last year with Zarco. For sure when you get this situation in a repeated way it’s frustrating. There is no reason why," he said.

"We know it’s a racing incident. It is questionable what a rider sees and doesn’t see. But the tendency for Pol is not to look on the inside, it looks like. In Brno we saw the incident with Johann.

"But I’m not here to blame him. We spoke after the race. He said he didn’t see me. I said I didn’t see you, but I was on the inside. So for me it’s normal.

"Finally it’s what it is. It’s a shame because it’s frustrating arriving back at the pitbox knowing you can fight for the top five and even the podium and you don’t do it because you crash with another KTM rider."

Pressed on whether the rider on the outside should give way in such situations, Oliveira replied:

"To be honest all my career I’ve understood that a guy that sees a gap on the inside should go for it. It is racing. It’s the basic rule of competing. If anyone is wide, you just go for the gap.

"There are some situations when it’s questionable, maybe on the limit or not. Finally, I think when I go out of my line and come back I’m always paying attention if someone is on the inside.

"Obviously the lines collide, it’s physics. You don’t have to be very smart to understand that. In that case Pol didn’t look. The incident happened. But again I don’t want to blame or say… It’s just frustrating when you look at the images and being on the inside to not be angry about this."

Despite the series of 'friendly-fire' incidents, Oliveira doesn't think there is much the KTM factory can do.

"At the end of the day, there is nothing really strong you can apply to the KTM riders. We are also competing against each other. Of course, it’s extra frustrating being a KTM rider, but at the end of the day you cannot ask a rider not to compete," Oliveira said.

"It's in every rider's mind to understand what they could have done differently. If I was Pol already with two incidents of the same character, I would start to think if I am approaching racing in general in the right way because at the moment it seems questionable..."