MotoGP Indonesia: Miguel Oliveira and RNF Aprilia boss at odds over release clause amid Honda interest

‘That’s not true’ - Miguel Oliveira admits there is no clause stopping him from leaving Aprilia before the 2024 MotoGP season.
Miguel Oliveira, RNF Aprilia MotoGP Mandalika 2023
Miguel Oliveira, RNF Aprilia MotoGP Mandalika 2023

Oliveira is contracte🃏d until the end of 2024 on a factory deal, however, interest from Honda has been building in recent days.

Along with Maverick Vinales, Oliveira has become Honda’s main 🐷target as they look to replace Marc Marquez.

But Oliveira’s team owner at RNF, Razlan Razali, was very vocal about the state of play regarding Oliveira and his contract: "He has a contract wi💫th Aprilia, a solid one,” said Razali when speaking to MotoGP.com. “So he will still be with us in 2024. 

“There's no such thing as a clause t♉hat says that if he has a faඣctory offer, he can leave Aprilia or RNF. There's no such thing. As far as we know, he's staying with us next year."

Oliveira was sꦡubsequently asked about those comments after Practice 2, and in particular about the no release clause, to 🦄which he replied: “That’s not true.”

In terms of the on-track action, Oliveira secured his spot in Q2 after finishing P2 with the sevent❀h best time.

“The soft [rear] was good,” began Oliveira. “There were a lo🍷t of yellow flags so I was getting a little bit impatient to get my lap. 

“But finally I could do a clean lap. I didn’t know if it was enough because 30.4s was really fast and I did aܫ 31.2 and ꧒was a bit far.

“B🌠ut happy to m♎ake it through. Still some work to do for tomorrow morning pace wise.”

Mandalika appears to be a good ci📖rcuit for Aprilia as Aleix Espargaro led a factory 102 ahead of Vinales.

Both ride🐭rs, along with Marco Bezzecchi, broke the official lap record in the process and Oliveira said the layout is favourable to the RS-GP23.

“I knew yesterda꧑y t🙈hat we shouldn’t be worried about the layout because the layout suits many of the aspect of our bike.”

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