‘Couldn’t see our true potential’, but P3 a ‘good first day’ for Oliveira

Miguel Oliveira made a good start to the Dutch MotoGP in what could be a weekend that sees him claim a fourth consecutive podium finish - first time since 2015 in Moto3. 

Oliveira ended a rain affected FP2 session second fastest behind Maverick Vinales, which was ultimately good enough for third overall. 

And with uncertain weather expected in Assen overnight, FP3 could be a full wet session which would guarantee the Portuguese rider an automatic Q2 spot. 

While it remains to be seen what track conditions will be like tomorrow, Oliveira made a pretty significant step this afternoon as he recovered from a ‘poor FP1 session’ in his words, that left him 14th quickest.

Oliveira said: "Good first day. Not the smoothest one because of the poor session we had in FP1. After that the team reacted quite well and gave me a good solution to start FP2, and immediately I felt I could be more competitive. 

"It was just a shame that we couldn’t really understand how much further we could go with the bike settings and see our true potential. 

"But, it was like that for everyone. Tomorrow our job is to be ready for any condition and to be fast in FP3 so we can go straight to Q2." 

The problems in FP1 were due to searching for improvements with bike set-up - specifically to find better ‘agility’ in the corners, while the base setting in the wet is one Oliveira is content with. 

"We were looking basically to gain more agility on the fast corners. So the changes we did was with that goal," added Oliveira.  

"We managed to achieve it, so now we need to work a little bit more, make more laps to try to know what would have been the next step or compromise. 

"On the wet it was okay. Also I build a good reference from the moment I started. If it rains tomorrow I think we already have a good base to continue."