The MotoGP test day at Mugello was disrupted by rain, preventing riders and teams from carrying out their planned work. Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia), who must make clear progress, still completed seven laps and is currently among the nine fastest drivers.
According to the Portuguese pilot, the weather conditions were an obstacle to testing what was planned: ‘There was something useful, but we couldn’t access it. Due to the track conditions it didn’t make sense to go out just to do it, without being within the acceptable lap time window to test anything as it was purely performance related. So, as you can imagine, this is quite difficult to do when the track is not in good condition. We had to shorten the day a little. I did a few laps in the rain, but it didn’t make any sense‘.
Regarding the importance of this day of testing, Oliveira said: ‘I needed it. We had some ideas; After analyzing the data yesterday we clearly saw why in the race I struggled to turn the bike and I had a lot of sliding at the front, which didn’t help me turn. We wanted to take the opportunity today to sort this out or at least try to figure out which way to go. So, yes, today was an important day‘.
The rain also didn’t help #88 much in testing the bike’s electronic settings, as he indicated: ‘I was already quite happy with the electronic adjustments that we have as a basis for the bike and when I went out we of course tested that again. But let’s say we didn’t need to dedicate the entire day to rainy conditions to test something specific regarding electronics‘.
