Oliveira and RNF Aprilia boss at odds over release clause amid Honda interest

Oliveira is contracted until the end of 2024 on a factory deal, however, interest from Honda has been building in recent days.

Along with Maverick Vinales, Oliveira has become Honda’s main target as they look to replace Marc Marquez.

• Bullish Bagnaia warns he’s finally back to peak fitness as title fight hots up 
• Marquez on crew chief change: “I accept the situation”

But Oliveira’s team owner at RNF, Razlan Razali, was very vocal about the state of play regarding Oliveira and his contract: "He has a contract with Aprilia, a solid one,” said Razali when speaking to MotoGP.com. “So he will still be with us in 2024. 

“There's no such thing as a clause that says that if he has a factory offer, he can leave Aprilia or RNF. There's no such thing. As far as we know, he's staying with us next year."

Oliveira was subsequently asked about those comments after Practice 2, and in particular about the no release clause, to which he replied: “That’s not true.”

In terms of the on-track action, Oliveira secured his spot in Q2 after finishing P2 with the seventh best time.

“The soft [rear] was good,” began Oliveira. “There were a lot of yellow flags so I was getting a little bit impatient to get my lap. 

“But finally I could do a clean lap. I didn’t know if it was enough because 30.4s was really fast and I did a 31.2 and was a bit far.

“But happy to make it through. Still some work to do for tomorrow morning pace wise.”

Mandalika appears to be a good circuit for Aprilia as Aleix Espargaro led a factory 102 ahead of Vinales.

Both riders, along with Marco Bezzecchi, broke the official lap record in the process and Oliveira said the layout is favourable to the RS-GP23.

“I knew yesterday that we shouldn’t be worried about the layout because the layout suits many of the aspect of our bike.”