Miguel Oliveira admitted his great frustration after his clash with Pol Espargaró, suggesting an inappropriate approach.
For the second time in three races, Miguel Oliveira was sent to the mat in contact with another KTM rider. After Brad Binder at the start of the Andalusia Grand Prix, last month is this time with Pol Espargaró that he hung up in Austria, as he tried to steal fifth place from him by making him inside at Turn 4.
“Pol has widened in several turns”, explains the Portuguese pilot. “In turn 4 I was close to him and this time he widened a lot. As a rider, when I see a hole, and especially if it’s big, I try to pass. Apparently when he came back. towards the track he didn’t see me and that’s why we fell. “
“My whole career I’ve understood that a guy who sees a hole in it has to go, because it’s racing. It’s a basic rule of competition: if someone widens, we go through the hole “, emphasizes Oliveira. “As far as I’m concerned, when I step away from my line and come back, I always pay attention to see if someone is inside because it’s obvious that [sinon] the lines will touch. It’s physics, you don’t have to be very smart to figure that out. I think in this case Pol didn’t watch and the incident happened. “
The Tech3 pilot believes that this accident is of a similar nature to the one that once sent Pol Espargaró to the mat in Brno, in a clash with Johann Zarco who was trying to get him inside, although the Spaniard then accused the pilot Avintia and that he had been penalized. According to Oliveira, Espargaró should question his approach to such situations.
“We know it’s a racing incident. What a driver sees or doesn’t see may be questionable, but it seems Pol tends not to look inside. 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 him either but since I was inside it was normal. That’s how it is. “
“You can’t ask a pilot not to fight, but I think it’s up to each pilot, in his head, to understand what could have been done differently. If I were Pol, after already two accidents of the same type, I would start to wonder if I approach racing in general the right way, because that sounds questionable. “
At the microphone of Canal +, the Tech3 pilot added a monumental pique with regard to his colleague: “I don’t want to attack Pol, but I think he gets overwhelmed with his emotions and maybe doesn’t think much. Unfortunately not everyone is born the same intelligence and it is sometimes difficult to think during the day. race. When you’re on the bike, you fight, there is a lot of adrenaline, but at the same time you have to manage what you think about. It is not given to everyone. “
Particularly frustrated after this new incident – the fan of the Tech3 box has a painful memory of it – Miguel Oliveira can only note that, by an unfortunate combination of circumstances, his race was again spoiled by one of his colleagues. “Again, I don’t want to blame him, but it’s frustrating for me and when I look at the pictures and see that I was inside [c’est difficile] not to be angry “, he admits.
“I have feelings, and I was very frustrated with this whole situation. This is the second time that I have fallen with another KTM, and even the third if you count [l’accident de] last year with Zarco. It is clear that when you experience these situations repeatedly, it is frustrating. […] It’s frustrating to come back to the pit knowing that we could fight for a top 5, even for a podium, but not to have been able to do it because we fell with another KTM rider. “
An unsuitable tire for Espargaró
The frustration was also palpable for Pol Espargaró after this race, of which he had led the first part. When the red flag was displayed following the violent pile-up between Zarco and Morbidelli, the Spanish rider had been in the lead for three laps, but he immediately knew his race was going to take a different turn.
“We didn’t have a new medium tire for the rear anymore. It was my fault, that of my team and of all KTM. We didn’t expect there to be a red flag in this race, but it was “, he regrets. Left with a soft rear tire, worthy of a qualification, it was quickly limited. “The rear was completely useless on the brakes, I couldn’t stop the bike, I widened in every corner. […] I might have had three good laps at the start, but the rear tire then deteriorated, the rear was locking up under braking and I was widening. But I already knew it after the red flag. When I got back to the pit I was shaking my head because I knew what was going to happen and it was exactly the case. “
Without admitting any personal fault, Pol Espargaró classifies his collision with Miguel Oliveira among the race incidents. “I was wide, like in every corner, and Miguel was a bit wide there too, and I opened the throttle on the outside while he was doing it on the inside. He didn’t. could see me, I could not see it and we bumped into it. It was precisely what we call a racing incident. We agree on that “, he assures.
“I was on the red line so I couldn’t move. He told me he hadn’t seen me, so what could we do? I know Miguel, we get along really well, I know he reflects on every move he makes and if he did it is because he was sure overtaking was possible, but it ended like that. “
“I think the bike was the best”, believes the Spaniard, who considers having been deprived of a possible victory, as in Brno. “In the first race I had the best package, the best bike, and then what happened happened and I couldn’t take advantage of it. I’m angry for that reason, because I think I had the best bike and didn’t make it. “
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