Qualifying Woes Leave Oliveira 21st Ahead of MotoGP Farewell and Superbike Debut

The final round of the MotoGP season opened with an unsettling sight for Portuguese fans: Miguel Oliveira’s name marooned in 21st on the Ricardo Tormo timing screens. Less than forty-eight hours before he waves goodbye to the premier class and pivots toward World Superbike, the Almada-born rider is facing one last battle with the same grip gremlins that have stalked him since Portimão.

A rough send-off morning

A cool Valencian dawn seemed benign, yet the Yamaha M1 refused to cooperate. Oliveira squeezed a quickest lap of 1:30.304 min, more than a second adrift of Pedro Acosta’s benchmark. The gap banished him to Q1 and, more painfully, underscored the difference between a restless prototype and a track famed for demanding rear-tyre traction in every short acceleration burst. When reporters caught him outside the box, the reply was blunt: “It was a bad day, the rear just would not bite.”

Valencia’s tricky layout meets Yamaha’s limitations

Ricardo Tormo is a clockwise amphitheatre of constant-radius bends where riders spend almost as much time banked over as upright. That rhythm normally flatters Yamaha’s agility, but the 2025 M1 has struggled to transfer power to asphalt. The crew experimented with suspension preload, electronic torque maps and weight distribution, searching for enough edge grip to let the Portuguese lean without fear of a high-side. Engineers pointed to data showing excessive wheel-spin exiting Turns 4 and 10, explaining why Oliveira lost crucial tenths along the short straights.

Words from the box

Team principal Gino Borsoi admitted the garage is short on solutions. He praised the rider’s patience yet conceded that, after months of chasing balance, “the perfect window keeps slipping away.” Yamaha insiders privately note that Oliveira’s style—late, assertive braking followed by an early lift—requires a planted rear tyre the current package seldom delivers. By mid-afternoon, mechanics were debating a softer spring and a radical shift in pivot height, a move rarely attempted so late in a weekend.

Race recovery and final salute

History suggests the 30-year-old thrives on Sundays. In 2022 he clawed from 14th to 5th here, and even this weekend he converted a battered grid slot into 11th in the sprint simulation. If he can cling to the second group and exploit tyre life after Lap 15, an emotional top-ten farewell remains plausible. He will, however, be navigating a field that now includes Jorge Martin’s returning Ducati and is missing the injured but already crowned Marc Márquez.

What moves for 2026 Superbikes

Oliveira’s signature with an as-yet unnamed but Kawasaki-linked outfit means Portuguese television may soon broadcast World Superbike in prime time again. The category visits circuits—Estoril is lobbying for a comeback—that resonate strongly with Iberian crowds. His move echoes compatriot Loris Baz’s earlier trajectory and could reignite domestic interest in production-based racing, offering fans a fresh narrative after four seasons of modest MotoGP results.

The MotoGP big picture and why it matters to Portugal

While Oliveira’s personal storyline dominates headlines at home, the broader paddock is in flux. KTM’s Acosta has confirmed rookie-of-the-year status, Aprilia’s Trackhouse project picked up former RNF staff, and Ducati’s 2026 engine concept already clocks worrying top-speed figures. Portugal’s round at Autódromo do Algarve remains early in the calendar, so any technical reset during winter testing could swing fortunes dramatically by the time the circus lands in the Algarve next spring. For now, supporters will wake up on Sunday hoping the last dance in orange, blue and green leathers ends with a charge that reminds the world why Miguel Oliveira once lit up Moto3 and Moto2 at this very circuit.