Miguel Oliveira has explained the multi-bike collision that took him out of top 10 contention in Sunday’s Dutch TT at Assen - as well as leaving Trackhouse Aprilia rookie Ai Ogura in the gravel.
It was described as a ‘typical’ opening-lap collision between multiple racers that no one in particular was to blame for.
Contact occurred between Oliveira and fellow special livery-shod Pramac Yamaha rider Jack Miller at Turn 5 on the opening lap of the race - pinging Oliveira off the track and taking Ogura with him, with the Japanese racer coming off the worst of the pair thanks to his low-speed tumble in the gravel.
“It was a typical traffic light incident,” Oliveira explained afterwards. “I made a good start again, jumped like three places, and everything was going smooth. But in Turn 5, [Johann] Zarco was going up the inside, got beside two guys, and Jack was right behind them.
“Jack had to brake, and as he braked I opened the throttle. By this much [centimetres], I clipped his rear wheel, and I was almost thrown to the other side. Luckily, Ogura was there, so I didn’t crash - but he crashed.”
Ogura, who didn’t speak to the media after the race, escaped without serious injury.
While Oliveira initially attempted to restart, he was eventually forced to concede after a trip to the pitlane.
“I rejoined the race,” he added, “but the front fairing was broken, the windscreen was off, the handlebar was bent.
“I tried to carry on, and I stopped and changed the fairing, because I saw the three crashes and thought maybe if there was a red flag I would be able to rejoin, but it was unfortunate I couldn’t carry on with the handlebar, especially with the right side bent.
“It’s a shame because I really felt today like it could have been a race with a lot of points, probably inside the top 10. But we’ll never know. We closed up the weekend with no points and that’s the reality.”
It was a tough day all round for Yamaha’s quartet of riders, with factory racer Alex Rins forced to take avoiding action to prevent also hitting Oliveira - which sent him to last place before he slowly recovered to 13th.
His team-mate Fabio Quartararo was also a victim of someone else’s crash, forced as he was to take avoiding action of his own on lap six to dodge Fermin Aldeguer’s Gresini Ducati after a nasty highside left the rookie’s machine in the middle of the circuit on the exit of turn 11 and left Aldeguer dazed and in pain.
“I was really close [to a collision],” Quartararo said after eventually recovering to finish 10th. “In the end, you don’t know what to do in this situation because you want to keep turning, but the bike and Fermin were coming to me so I opened the throttle to go into the grass.”
That was a big one at T11 involving @Aldeguer54 & @JoanMirOfficial 💥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 29, 2025
Glad to see both riders are up on their feet ❤️🩹#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/gHGwy5NnDP
Quartararo’s fellow MotoGP champion Joan Mir wasn’t as lucky, however, striking Aldeguer’s bike and firing himself over the handlebars of his Castrol Honda.
“First of all, I am happy that Fermin is okay because he took a big fall and when you fall like that in the track – it’s complicated,” he said in the Honda team’s press release after skipping his media session due to dizziness and pain from the crash.
“I couldn’t do anything to avoid the crash unfortunately. It was a big hit also for me, I’m in quite a lot of pain so I’ll return home and check my condition in a few days.”
The other unusual casualty of the day was Red Bull KTM racer Pedro Acosta, who finished the race in fourth, only to then be hospitalised due to an allergic reaction from a wasp sting after the race. He was treated in a local hospital before being given the all-clear to travel home on Sunday night.
