MotoGP Americas, Austin: Oliveira: Marquez and I 'cleared everything', ‘case closed’ for me

The application of Marc Marquez’s double long lap penalty may be rumbling on at the MotoGP Court of Appeal but it’s already ‘case closed’ for Miguel Oliveira.
Marc
Marc

Marquez received t💞he penalty for slamming into the side of home hero Oliveira after losꦫing control under braking in the Portimao season-opener.

The eight-time world champion apolog🥂ised♛ to Oliveira and accepted the double long lap sanction from the FIM Stewards.

However, when it became clear that Marquez🎀 (like Oliveira) would miss round two in Argentina due to his injuries, the Stewards tri෴ed to change the application of the penalty from Argentina to Marquez’s ‘next race’.

Repsol Honda filed a protest aga🐠inst the 'modification' and the penalty has now been suspended until the MotoGP Court of Appeal reaches its final verdict.

Although Marquez 💟is to miss a second event𒁃 due to his fractured thumb, Oliveira is making his return at COTA this weekend.

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“Marc and I ꦫcleared every🌠thing on the Sunday,” Oliveira said. “He came to check on me in the medical centre. He explained what happened, and he apologised.

“That is case closed, for me. Since then, I haven’t paid attention [to the app✅eals]. I hope he comes back soon to race in Jerez and recovers fully.”

Oliveira, ꩲwho had been 🔥holding second at the time of the accident, explained:

“The injury was [to] a couple of tendons in the𝔉 hip. I couldn’t open my leg over the bike without big pain… so I made a pretty tough decision to take a rest [and miss Argentina].

“It’s a ♐shame the races were back-to-back otherwise I could have raced. But after what happened on the Sunday,🌠 I am grateful not to have any major injuries.”

Looking ahead to his COTA debut with RNF Aprilia, the five-time MotoGP race winner conceded he will need to improve on straight-line braking but sees no reason why the RS-GP can’t be 🧜competitive.

“Portimao was🍌 a track that suited my style, and not the areas where I struggled with the Aprilia, which was straight braking. Here in Texas I think I will struggle a bit more to adapt to these areas where I am not really comfortable yet,” he said.

“But we have the opportunity from tomorrow to start working on this and get more comfortable with the bike. It’s a long season. I just want to restart here and hopefully sco✱re points in both races. That’ll be important.

“I need to d🌳iscover the track w🅰ith this bike, I don’t see any specific reason why the Aprilias cannot be competitive here.”

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