Assen Sprint The latest disappointment for the 2023 MotoGP riders is no luck

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Miguel Oliveira, MotoGP’s luckiest rider for 2023, was somewhat lucky once – but he was relatively unscathed from Saturday’s sprint race in the Dutch TT.

The RNF Aprilia rider managed to escape an early move from Pramac Racing’s Johan Zarco that nonetheless left him lashing out at the Frenchman afterwards.

Oliveira is still riding primarily with limited function in his left shoulder after his last opening-lap collision with Fabio Quartararo at the Spanish Grand Prix nearly two months earlier – his second injury of the season in similar circumstances after being knocked out of his home race in Portimao by Marc Marquez a month earlier. that.

Missing two rounds of the championship since then due to his injuries, it wasn’t an easy path back to something close to full fitness in Assen this weekend, especially with the race serving as the third segment in MotoGP’s first triple header. year.

Things looked better in the Dutch race, where the Aprilia RS-GP has traditionally been strong, and Oliveira looked ready to make up for lost time in Saturday’s race when he converted a row four spot in qualifying into an excellent start move. His up to six.

That didn’t last long, however, with an aggressive move by Zarco demoting Oliveira down the ranks, dropping him to number 10 and leaving him furious.

Zarco’s move went over the limit, he insisted – even if it did not get any form of punishment from the FIM MotoGP stewards.

Oliveira explained, “I got a good start, made a few positions, and between corners 10 and 11 Zarco passed me. Over the limit. And I pushed wide. Five riders passed him.”

“We went to see [the stewards]Because I hope they check the race on CCTV and not on broadcast. If they do they will definitely see it. Yes. But apparently they didn’t.”

While he was lucky this time to escape without contact and without the kind of early race crash that has already affected twice his 2023 season, it wasn’t easy for Oliveira to sail from there as things went from bad to worse for him.

His 10th-place finish put him in Zarco’s accident in the way of the Marquez brothers – a mistake this time of his own making, getting sucked between the pair as they slowed in Turn 1 and he had to avoid action. This dropped him to the finish, and he was only able to get back up to 19th.

“Braking in the first corner, and he passed Mark, Mark was out, and I think Alex came in and passed both of us,” Oliveira explained.

I kind of sandwiched between them and had to release the brakes to avoid hitting Alex.

“And that’s it. That’s my race. I was last. Then yeah. It didn’t take much to recover.”

“It was kind of like the Mugello funnel, except here [Alex Marquez] I was in and I was in the middle. I had to release the brakes, there are a lot of runoff areas there but it’s off the track.

“The barriers are so big I didn’t want to go out, so I ended up going in the end.”

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