Statement from BMW’s star rider Miguel Oliveira: “A top-five finish is realistic”

When Miguel Oliveira raced in front of his compatriots for the first time as a Superbike rider at the European season opener in Portimão, the BMW rider shone with three third-place finishes. Since then, the Portuguese rider has had to endure a number of setbacks, such as a protracted injury following a crash through no fault of his own at the Balaton Park Circuit, or disastrous weekends like the one at Magny-Cours, where a top-10 finish was out of reach.

Things are looking better – much better – at the penultimate round of the 2026 Superbike World Championship. On Friday, the former MotoGP rider shone in the second free practice session, clocking a time of 1:35.816 minutes – 0.384 seconds off the pace – to set the fourth-fastest lap time. Only the Ducati riders Nicolò Bulega, Alberto Surra and Iker Lecuona were faster.

“I don’t think my pace is too bad, even though my bike isn’t set up perfectly yet. When I pushed, my fastest and slowest laps were within five-tenths of a second of each other, and that’s okay,” said Oliveira late in the afternoon. “Whatever we found in Cremona, we’ve been able to confirm it here. We’ve found a good direction, and it’s very different from what we had at Magny-Cours. That’s at least a good basis, even if we still have the familiar weak points. But it’s only Friday and things are already going quite well. I think we’re on schedule. We’ve had a good start to the weekend and we’re performing at a good level. We’re hoping to take another step forward on Saturday and get a bit closer to the top riders.”

A top-five finish would be a good and realistic result.

Miguel Oliveira (BMW)

Although the BMW rider doesn’t believe he can secure a podium finish like he did at Portimão, Oliveira certainly wants to be in contention for the top positions.

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“A top-five finish would be a good and realistic result,” emphasised the 31-year-old. “The position is one thing, but we’re also looking at the gaps. In FP1 we were about a second off the pace, in FP2 a little less. At the same time, our rivals are hot on our heels and fourth place can quickly turn into eighth. So we need to get everything right, focus on the small details and have a good FP3 on Saturday ahead of Superpole. In fact, it’s only then that we can really assess what’s possible in the race. Intuitively, I feel there’s potential, but with little margin for error.”