Portugal's Miguel Oliveira rose to the challenge of wet conditions and won the sixth Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race at Donington in Britain in only his second ride in the competition.
The 13-year-old first rode as a wild card entry at his home event in April. He led from start to finish on a wet and slippery surface on Saturday leaving 16-year-old Norwegian Sturla Fagerhaug and 15-year-old South African Mathew Scholtz to take the minor podium places. Championship leader Luis Salom finished ninth, which eroded his lead down to nine points ahead of American JD Beach who finished fifth in Saturday's race.
Oliveira wins in first ever wet race
"It is so great to win this race. It's is so important for me because the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup has really good riders and it's not easy," Oliveira said after the race. "I don't really like riding in the rain and it is my first time in the wet on the KTM but right from the start I had a good feeling. I think that was the key to the race. I felt good from the start and I guess the other riders didn't."
The young Portuguese rider had amassed a 16-second advantage at the half way mark. His ascension to the top of the podium was accelerated when pole sitter Daijiro Hiura and Florian Marino both crashed leaving it to Fagerhaug and Scholtz to hunt him down.
Fagerhaug a good second
Fagerhaug was satisfied to have had a good start. "That is what has been letting me down so much but after Mugello I got some good advice about what I was doing wrong and it worked. I was a bit slow over the first few laps because we had new rain tyres on and it was pretty slippery," the Norwegian said.
Rookie Scholtz delivers solid performance
It was a great day for rookie Scholtz, experiencing his first ever race in the rain. "I was battling with Florian from the start and that slowed us down a bit so Miguel got away from us. Then when Sturla passed us I followed him and we picked up the pace a bit." In the end the following two riders closed the gap to just 1.7 seconds at the flag and Oliveira had no idea it was that close.
American JD Beach, second in the standings, had a crash in final practice that put him on the third row of the grid. He was not happy with his fifth place in the race. Cup leader Luis Salom said the race had been hard and he wasn't satisfied with the result even though it did give him seven more championship points for his ninth place.
Results
1. Miguel Oliveira, Portugal, KTM 32:15.815
2. Sturla Fagerhaug, Norway, KTM, 32:17.580
3. Mathew Scholtz, South Africa, KTM, 32:18.923
4. Nelson Major, France, KTM, 33:16.248
5. JD Beach, USA, KTM, 33:16.537
Championship standings
1. Luis Salom, Spain, 120 points
2. JD Beach, USA, 111
3. Sturla Fagerhaug, Norway, 77
4. Nelson Major, France, 68
5. Daijiro Hiura, Japan, 63
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