FEATUREDLatestMotoGP

MotoGP Austria: Oliveira: “Not everyone is born with the same intelligence”

Pol Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira came together in an incident at Austria and Oliveira had some strong words regarding this.

For the second time in three races, Miguel Oliveira has been taken out by a fellow KTM rider with Brad Binder also taking out the Portuguese man in the Andalucia Grand Prix, Pol Espargaro has also had similar crashes in two races where he has gone off of the racing line, then moved back onto the line whilst a fellow rider has occupied this space, the first time was with ex-teammate Johann Zarco and now Miguel Oliveira. Oliveira noted that both crashes were similar.

Oliveira was very clearly angry at what had happened, taking to smashing up his pit box in an extremely uncharacteristic move from the normally calm Portuguese rider.

The Tech3 rider had some incredibly strong words for Pol Espargaro when speaking to CANAL+, “I don’t want to attack anyone or Pol but I think he gets too emotional and maybe doesn’t think, unfortunately, not everyone is born with the same intelligence and sometimes it’s hard to have this and think during the race. When you are on the bike we are competing, we have a lot of adrenaline but at the same time we have to manage what we think, it is not something that is given to everyone.”

Miguel Oliveira let rip on the Red Bull KTM rider, straight after saying he doesn’t want to attack anyone. Oliveira has a habit of being knocked off by KTM riders with Johann Zarco doing the same at Silverstone 2019 causing an injury to Oliveira.

Pol Espargaro on the other hand firmly believes this is a racing incident saying “I was leaving wide in all the curves and Miguel also left wide in the same place. We checked the data and confirmed it. When I accelerated from the outside it accelerated from the inside. He didn’t see me, I didn’t see him and we collided. It’s what we call a racing incident and you have to agree that I couldn’t do anything, I was already on the edge of the track, I couldn’t move anymore.

He told me he didn’t see me. I know Miguel and we have a very good relationship. I know that he doesn’t do tricks without thinking about them and if he tried to overtake it because he thought he was sure he could overtake me but it ended up like this. Things are what they are.”

If there’s one thing we know, this battle will continue this weekend for round 2 in Austria.

Featured image – Dorna Sports

Leave a Reply