I know Olivera was/is loved by @lostboy who funnily enough we seem to have lost on here
RNF’s new era with Aprilia got off to an impressive start with new signing Miguel Oliveira fourth fastest on his debut at the Valencia MotoGP test.
Replaced at Red Bull KTM by Jack Miller, Oliveira turned down offers from Gresini Ducati and GASGAS in favour of the RNF-Aprilia move.
The Portuguese’s first contact with the RS-GP was promising, Oliveira occasionally dipping into the 1m 30s during the day before setting a 1m 30.3s in a late time attack.
That was just 0.335s from fastest man Luca Marini (Ducati) and put five-time MotoGP race winner Oliveira between factory Aprilia riders Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro.
“No, because we know he's fast!” smiled Zeelenberg, when asked if he was surprised by Oliveira’s speed
“But of course we hoped he was able to flow into the package as he did. Because it's nice to see him doing 30.3. With the KTM he did 30.1, so this is already a good achievement for the first day on a new bike.
“Also, he doesn't have the feeling that he's doing crazy things. So this is also very important. Because you could do a couple of time attacks to reach that lap time, but he fitted just one soft tyre at the end.
“So the base is working. For sure we need to adjust some things to improve his riding positioning, the levers and these kind of things.
“But to do that [time] already is good. It was a time attack but you know the race pace was 31.3-4 and he was already able to do that under these circumstances [at the test].”
Team-mate Raul Fernandez, who spent a difficult rookie MotoGP season on a KTM at Tech3, was 21st fastest (+1.3s).
