Oliveira expected Quartararo to be faster, ‘happy’ to hold Zarco at bay

Miguel Oliveira produced one of the better individual rides so far in 2021 as he claimed a third career MotoGP victory. 

Oliveira was up to second by turn one after starting fourth, before taking the lead from Jack Miller after a few laps. 

It wasn’t until mid-race distance that the man everyone had tipped for victory, Fabio Quartararo came through. 

However, the Frenchman was unable to pull away and instead Oliveira was able to regain the lead a couple laps later. 

The Portuguese rider came under intense pressure from Johann Zarco late on and said it was difficult to understand what was happening behind him. 

"From my perspective it was hard to understand what was going on behind me. At the beginning I knew there was a couple of switches on the position," added Oliveira. 

"In the second place I got this little gap that I was comfortable with and I could be gentle with the tyres, could do my lines and not do any mistakes. 

"I think that was the key to being able to finish. It was quite hard for everyone but for me it was extra hard because I had a hard front tyre, and in the last eight laps it was difficult to stay on the bike and not crash."

Oliveira also spoke about the battle with Quartararo which was a much shorter one than was anticipated, as Quartararo struggled towards the end of the race.

The 26 year-old also expected Quartararo to have more pace: "The beginning of my race pace was something that we kind of expected. We also expected that Fabio [Quartararo] was just faster and if he had an early lead then maybe it was going to be difficult. 

"But he didn’t have that much in the pocket today, so when he overtook me I saw my chance to stay there with him and maybe disturb him a little bit and I managed to do that. 

"Then I think he was staying attached to me but he had the unfortunate thing that I saw after with the leathers, but yeah, happy to hold Johann [Zarco] in the last few laps."