Miguel Oliveira consolidated his Mugello podium with a victory at Barcelona, gifting KTM its first win of the year in the CatalanGP. 

Holding off pressure from Fabio Quartararo for the majority of the race, and Johann Zarco in the closing stages, the Portuguese rider maintained his dominance despite managing hard front and rear Michelin tyres. 

“From the second place, I got this little gap so I was comfortable, and I could be gentle with the tyres, do my lines and not make any mistakes” Oliveira explained as he reflected on the 24-lap race. 

“I think that was the key to be able to finish. I mean, was quite hard for everyone I guess but for me it was extra hard because I had a hard front tyre, and the last eight laps it was just really hard for me to stay on the bike and not crash.

“The beginning race pace was something that we kind of expected. We also expected that Fabio was just faster, and if he had an early lead, maybe that was going to be difficult. But he didn't have that much in the pocket today and 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 have done that. Then I think he was just staying attached to me but he had the unfortunate thing that I saw after, with the leathers, and I was just happy to hold Johann off in the last few laps.

“It's true we don't have the speed to overtake a Ducati down the straight, I can make time on the slip stream but as soon as I pull out there's no chance we can overtake. They still ride pretty good in fifth and sixth gear, that's quite difficult to overtake. These Yamaha bikes, they are quite fast going in the fast corners so they can carry much more corner speed but when it comes to drive I think today we were just a little bit better.”

With back to back podiums and an impressive showing across both Mugello and Barcelona weekends for both himself and Brad Binder, thanks to the new frame, fuel and recent upgrades,  KTM is now being tipped as a consistent challenger for the remainder of the season.

“I would like to say, yes but you can never be too comfortable” the 26-year-old admitted. 

“Every track has its own particularities and you always need to work on so many details to be able to finish the race, to have a good performance and to do good qualifying. Right now I have to say that the bike is working well everywhere. Even the racetracks where we’ve struggled in the past, like Mugello, we come in and we have a strong weekend, and so hopefully we can do that in the upcoming tracks. Until the end of the season we have two unknowns, because we didn't race there last year, and hopefully we can get in the mix quite early most weekends and try to do our best.

“[At KTM] everyone is doing the maximum effort to solve every little issue that we have, they are able to be on top of everything that we need, so what else can you do. You put your maximum effort into the things and you expect that you have the tools to react whenever it's needed. Right now we have a stable bike, we have a good package for different tracks, and this was something that we lacked in the past. We also have a bike which is not such of a beast anymore, like it was in 2019, so I think it makes it, also for other riders, more friendly to ride. Altogether, we have a good, strong group to work, not only technically but also I think in the four riders. We give valuable feedback to the factory and we can only do so much but we expect to continue on this form in upcoming races.

“I think it's quite early to talk about title hopes or anything like that. We got a really bad start to the championship and that put us, really, on the bottom of the standings and now we are building up results. It's quite tempting to think that with back-to-back podiums and me moving up so quickly in the standings, it's quite tempting to think about that, but I just prefer to focus on every weekend, try to do the maximum weekend, and bring home the most points as possible in every race. At the end we will see where we end up but right now this is the main focus. When the bike is there to perform, I take the advantage. I'm physically okay, mentally also. So there is no reason to think I'm not on a good form” he concluded.