Miguel Oliveira “just didn’t have enough to challenge Ducati”

Miguel Oliveira finished the German MotoGP in sixth place following early battles with Francesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez.

The Trackhouse rider was the only rider able to pose a serious threat to Ducati before slowly losing touch as the race went on.

Oliveira was overtaken by both Marc Marquez and Enea Bastianini at the final corner which dropped him to seventh before gaining a place when Jorge Martin crashed on the penultimate lap.

“It was a great weekend for sure,” said Oliveira. “We managed very competitive lap times, had very competitive finishes, both in the Qualifying and the Sprint.

“Today was the first real challenge, in the long race, that I faced during the weekend.

“We just didn’t have enough for the Ducatis today - they were on a different pace and different grip levels.

“It’s a shame I couldn’t challenge for more because during the weekend I was riding good, quite smooth, managing the tyres very well but I just didn’t have enough today.”

Like in the sprint on Saturday, Oliveira’s team-mate Raul Fernandez dropped down the order after starting alongside the Portuguese rider on the front row.

Although it wasn’t as steep a drop as the sprint, Fernandez ultimately finished the race in tenth spot.

Fernandez added: “We had to analyse well what happened yesterday to understand the issue we had in the Sprint because also for my mind, it was important to have a report before going into the race today.

“It was quite difficult to manage the Sprint yesterday, so I wanted to know what to expect from the race today.

“The team did a good job and this morning we had some good information from yesterday.

“I understood the problem I had in the Sprint, so I was super focused on performance in the race because I thought we could do well.

“But, finally in the race itself, although I did my maximum, I didn’t have anything more, especially in the second part of the race.

“In the first 15 laps I was there fighting with leading group and Miguel but, from lap 15 on to the end, I was struggling with the tyre.

“We tried to save it during the race in the way that I know, but it was difficult and so the end of the race was hard. I did my best and we are in the top 10 - the weekend overall was quite ok.”