The MotoGP test day in Mugello was affected by rain, preventing the riders and teams from carrying out their scheduled work. Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia), who needs to make clear progress, nevertheless completed seven laps and is currently among the nine fastest riders.
According to the Portuguese pilot, the weather conditions were an obstacle to testing what was expected: ‘There was something useful, but we couldn’t do it. Due to the track conditions, it made no sense for him to go out there without being in the right time frame to test anything because he was purely performance-related. So, as you can imagine, it is quite difficult to do this when the track is not in good condition. We had to shorten the day a little. I did a couple of laps in the rain, but it was meaningless‘.
Regarding how important this day of testing was, Oliveira said: ‘I needed it. We had a couple of ideas; after analyzing the data yesterday, we clearly saw why I had difficulty in the race turning the bike and I had a lot of front slide, and it didn’t help me turn. We wanted to have an opportunity today to fix this or at least try to figure out the direction to go. So, yes, today was a big day‘.
Even the rain wasn’t much help for the #88 in testing the bike’s electronic settings, as he stated: ‘I was already quite happy with the electronic adjustments that we have as a basis for the bike and when I went out we obviously tested them again. But let’s say that there was no need to dedicate the entire day to rainy conditions to test something specific regarding the electronics‘.
