“Big challenge” for Miguel Oliveira to stand on Estoril WorldSBK podium

Miguel Oliveira was on the podium in all three races at his home WorldSBK in March, but returning to Portugal – this time at Estoril – the BMW rider feels it will be a “big challenge” for him to finish in the top-three.

Oliveira was fourth in Race 1 after showing some early aggression to get past Alex Lowes. But he was never able to get within a second of Alberto Surra to challenge for third.

Top-fives were the target for Oliveira coming into the weekend after several difficult WorldSBK rounds for BMW, but improving on it will be difficult in Sunday’s two races.

“Saturday, we did the target that we set ourselves before the weekend,” said Miguel Oliveira, speaking to WorldSBK.com after Race 1 at Estoril.

“I knew that a podium would be very sweated and with a bit of luck. 

“Eventually, the pace was actually there so I was happy about that. Did a couple of mistakes and with a little bit of fine-tuning I hope that we can get closer tomorrow. 

“But it will be difficult, it’s a big challenge. 

“Also Alex [Lowes] is riding fantastic and it’s making life a little bit hard, so we have to be on our best moment with the bike to be able to challenge for more. 

“At the same time, we have [the Superpole Race] in the morning, so for sure it will be a lot of fight and I hope to be up to the challenge and see what tomorrow brings.”

Oliveira explained that some ergonomic changes had contributed to his upturn in speed of late, starting at Cremona, although he admits the factory Ducatis are still much faster.

“A little bit riding position, some stuff on the bike that we have been changing,” Oliveira said when asked to explain the recent performance improvements.

“I think also the approach that we have been taking to the weekend is quite a positive one.

“The base setup was quite good. We are getting there, slowly. 

“For sure we are aware that the top two guys are still a lot faster, but we are taking the steps and already from Cremona we were there, but we didn’t show because I couldn’t finish the races. 

“Today, finally we could do a solid result, a solid race, constant pace, and I’m happy about this.”