Raul Fernandez crashes after just a few corners in the MotoGP race at Silverstone, taking Trackhouse teammate Miguel Oliveira out of the race
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone was over for the Trackhouse team after just a few seconds. Raul Fernandez crashed after just a few corners, causing team-mate Miguel Oliveira to fall as well. Fernandez’s bike slid into Oliveira’s bike, who then crashed
A missed opportunity for Trackhouse, as the Aprilia RS-GP was second behind the Ducati Desmosedici at Silverstone. “I’m sorry for the team,” began Fernandez, who regrets the consequences of his crash.
“On the grid, we opted for the hard front tire. We thought that was the best choice. But at the start of the race, I made a mistake with a full tank and crashed. My bike hit Miguel,” Fernandez describes the scene and suspects that his front tire was not yet at the right temperature and that is why he crashed.
“I feel bad because this was an important weekend for the team. We couldn’t score any points. That’s why I apologize to the team,” said the Spaniard. “The top five would certainly have been difficult in the race, but a top 10 result was realistic.”
Fernandez rode the 2024 version of the Aprilia RS-GP for the first time at Silverstone. Until now, the former Moto2 runner-up had to make do with last year’s version. Trackhouse announced before the weekend that Fernandez will also ride for the team in 2025 and 2026. The future of team-mate Miguel Oliveira, on the other hand, is still open
Miguel Oliveira “in the wrong place at the wrong time “
Oliveira was very unlucky on Sunday. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the Portuguese rider. “On the first lap of the race, my teammate crashed behind me and his bike hit mine, causing me to crash heavily. At the moment it looks like I don’t have any injuries, but I’ll have to evaluate that over the next few days.”
It remains to be seen what would have been possible for Oliveira at Silverstone. “We certainly had the race pace to make it into the top 10,” he muses. A change to the set-up of the Aprilia in the warm-up on Sunday morning provided optimism
It was @BradBinder_33 that was away slowly!
He’s not the only rider out of this race on lap 1, both @TrackhouseMoto riders are gone too! BritishGP pic.twitter.com/DIOXXSm1zY
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) August 4, 2024
“We found a good improvement in the warm-up. We tried a change that gave us more mechanical grip. The feeling for the race was really good. I thought that we would have a good race pace,” said Oliveira, who complained about the traction control system intervening too much on Saturday.
In tenth place, Oliveira narrowly missed out on the points in the sprint race. Team-mate Fernandez finished the sprint in P12 and also came away empty-handed. Silverstone was therefore a complete clean sweep for Trackhouse