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Fabio Quartararo was victorious in Portimao ahead of Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir as Alex Rins and Johann Zarco suffer heart-breaking late blows.
The Portimao Circuit offered plenty of challenges to the riders including hard braking zones and long, sweeping parabolicas as the track undulates through the hills of the Portuguese Algarve Coast.
Starting Grid
Fresh from his victory last time out in Qatar, Fabio Quartararo set a blistering 1:38.862 time to place his Yamaha machine on pole position, just under a tenth ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Championship leader Johann Zarco who lined up in third.
The big story of the weekend was the return of Marc Marquez. The eight-time champion suffered a year of injury complications which forced him to miss all of the 2020 season as well as the first two rounds of the 2021 campaign in Qatar and after 265 days lined up on a MotoGP grid once again.
The Spaniard qualified on the second row of the grid alongside Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller who underwent an arm pump surgery after the Doha Grand Prix two weeks ago.
The winner from Round One, Maverick Vinales, started 12th after his lap was deleted due to an infringement of track limits by the smallest of margins. Francesco Bagnaia’s lap time was also deleted due to yellow flags at turn nine because of a Miguel Oliviera crash.
As it Happened
Off the line, Quartararo struggled to get away cleanly as he wheelied forcing him to close the throttle which dropped him down to sixth.
The returning Marc Marquez got a brilliant start as he forced his way up to third after three corners, before his compatriot Joan Mir made his way through as the two Suzuki machines chased down race leader Zarco.
At the start of lap two, Marquez clipped Mir’s rear tyre forcing the Spaniard to sit up giving Miller and Quartararo the opportunity to overtake the eight-time champion.
Unfortunately for the 28-year-old, he started falling back down the pack as in the space of two laps he dropped from fourth to ninth.
On lap four, after Rins tried an identical move a lap earlier, he made his move stick on Johann Zarco which moved him into the lead of the race.
On the exit of turn two on lap six, Jack Miller lost the rear of his Ducati sending him into the gravel and forced him to retire.
On the same lap, home hero Oliviera crashed at turn 14 but remounted and continued with his race.
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As the lead group sorted itself out, Quartararo and Rins started to pull away before the Frenchman overtook Rins into turn one at the start of lap nine. The Yamaha rider hoped to pull away, but Rins aboard his Suzuki was determined not to make it easy for Quartararo.
The gap between Rins and Quartararo fluctuated throughout the mid-stages of the race as the lead duo started to pull away from the chasing Mir and Zarco.
Another victim of the challenge of Portimao was Valentino Rossi as his Petronas SRT bike lost grip and tumbled through the gravel trap. The Doctor ran a steady race in P11 before his crash bought a premature end to his race.
On lap 17, the leaders set near identical lap times, with only one-thousandth of a second the difference between the two.
Francesco Bagnaia started a late charge to try and snatch a podium place as he overtook Franco Morbidelli with eight laps to go.
The Italian’s battle continued as he overtook Mir at turn five, moments before Alex Rins tucked the front end of his Suzuki at the very same corner. The Spaniard was fiercely chasing down the Yamaha of Quartararo but pushed too hard and his winning hopes went sliding along the asphalt run-off area.
This left Quartararo with the easy task to bring home his second win of the season, but the Frenchman couldn’t let himself get too complacent.
Thanks to Rins’ crash, Bagnaia found himself up into third. The Italian overtook Zarco at the tight turn five, but later in the lap, the Championship leader heartbreakingly crashed out of the race with five laps to go.
Fabio Quartararo was victorious once again as he claimed his second race victory of the season. Today was the first time that Yamaha won the first three races of the season since 2010, where Jorge Lorenzo eventually went on to secure his maiden MotoGP title.
The Frenchman expressed his delight in parc-ferme after the race:
“What a race! I didn’t expect to be less than half a second from my qualifying lap pace. It was amazing! The pressure from Rins behind, I wanted to make a gap but then he made a mistake. I was riding well; I was riding easy and still making a gap to ‘Pecco’ (Francesco Bagnaia). I was so happy; we did an amazing job!”
Quartararo also exclaimed how confident he is aboard his Factory Yamaha machine:
“It’s good to be back to full confidence. Bringing from Qatar the confidence here, I feel the same. Now we know what we need to work on to go fast, I only need to feel the front and I’m going fast, and I can just focus on my riding.”
Francesco Bagnaia came home in second, narrowly beating Mir who finished third and Morbidelli who narrowly missed out on a podium.
On his return, Marc Marquez came home in an impressive seventh place. Despite only completing six consecutive laps all weekend before the race, a valiant effort from the eight-time champion as he hopes to be fitter in Jerez and kick start a belated title charge.
What’s Next?
MotoGP takes a two-week break before the Championship heads to Jerez for the Spanish Grand Prix where Fabio Quartararo will be hoping to claim a hat-trick of victories.
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