Mir thought race was over after Oliveira Assen start line crash

Mir braked hard into his grid slot to engage the front holeshot device for the start, but caught Oliveira unaware.

Oliveira ran into Mir and broke one of his wings, while Mir escaped damage. Both were able to complete the race, with Mir finishing eighth and Oliveira ninth.

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“Now you have to engage the front device, the front holeshot and with our bike you have to brake quite hard to engage it,” Mir explained when asked about the incident.

“And when I saw my starting position, I braked and then Oliveira just hit me. He lost a wing or something, my bike was ok, but the hit was pretty strong.

“When I felt the hit, I looked back and said ‘ok, let’s go to the box’ because it was quite strong.”

Miguel Oliveira, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Oliveira says he was not focused on where Mir was as he was letting Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales go past him.

The KTM rider also says the damage he received to his aerodynamics made his bike harder to turn and less stable.

“I was drawn to him,” Oliveira joked when asked about the collision. “I mean, clearly it was an unexpected move because I think he engaged his front device in his spot.

“He was going slow and then he did a stoppy and I was not expecting it because I let Maverick and Jack pass to the right side of the track.

“I was waiting to my spot because I already engaged my device before and then I just rolled to my spot. But at this moment he braked and I couldn’t avoid him because I was just not focused on him because I let these guys passed. And when I was going to the left he stopped.

“So, I broke my lever protection on my brake and the wing was broken completely. The effect was I lost stability in fast corners and the bike was hard to turn on the right side.”