Miguel Oliveira mentioned he anticipated the mix of the BMW M1000 RR and TT Circuit Assen’s structure to be a problem on the Dutch WorldSBK, however not as a lot as he did within the Netherlands on Friday.
Oliveira crashed at Flip 10 in FP1 on the primary day of the 2026 World Superbike Spherical 3, however was exterior the highest 10 in each practices.
The Portuguese was additionally the quickest non-Ducati rider, trailing teammate Danilo Petrucci, who completed the day in fourth place.
Oliveira mentioned earlier than the weekend that he was conscious that Assen’s structure may very well be troublesome for BMW, however after Friday’s run he felt it was worse than anticipated.
“Assen, we knew it might be an excellent problem for us,” Miguel Oliveira informed WorldSBK.com after FP2 in Assen.
“So it was type of anticipated (to wrestle), but it surely wasn’t too unhealthy on the bike.
“However we’re nonetheless 0.8, 0.9 (seconds) behind. Danilo (Petrucci) is 0.4 (seconds) behind and he’s fourth, so that’s the hole that now we have to dig.”
“I am positive we’ll be in a greater place tomorrow.”
Oliveira mentioned the bike by no means felt good from the beginning of FP1 and he struggled to show the bike in Assen’s flowing sections.
“The bike did not really feel proper from the beginning,” he mentioned.
“I had a very laborious time turning the bike round these flowing corners.”
Talking concerning the crash, he added: “I felt a little bit of a chatter in Flip 10. It’s extremely uncommon, but it surely occurs so much. There was a little bit of a chatter and each wheels went away from underneath me.”
“In any case, it was a small crash, but it surely already confirmed that this isn’t the course we should always observe.”
The Portuguese participant mentioned he was capable of finding some areas of enchancment within the afternoon, however not meaningfully sufficient.
“I used to be in a position to make just a little little bit of progress this afternoon, but it surely wasn’t an enormous step for me to really feel like I may very well be on the bike and experience it the best way I needed to experience it,” he defined.
“So, there’s undoubtedly work to do tomorrow.
“For positive, we all know there may be room for enchancment. We do not understand how a lot we are able to enhance, however we will certainly attempt to be much more aggressive tomorrow.”
