The world champion is scary again, in Portimao, with a perfect race. As he likes, Fabio Quartararo took the lead after a handful of laps and quickly greeted all the other riders, keeping an unsustainable pace. Twenty-five laps to find himself and the victory, which he had not yet won this season.
The bonus was the first place in the championship, on equal points (69) with Alex Rins, today at the foot of the podium. «I pushed myself to the limit and the bike behaved very well – Fabio’s words – I had a fantastic start and I was able to manage the race, I’m happy».
France celebrates a double with Johann Zarco, 2nd on Pramac’s Ducati. There could have been another Red on the podium, but with 7 laps to go Jack Miller made a mistake in trying to overtake Mir, knocking down even the innocent Spaniard. The road to the podium, at that point, was open for Aprilia and Aleix Espargaró did not miss the shot, giving the Noale manufacturer another satisfaction after the victory in Argentina.
4th place, as mentioned, went to Alex Rins, author of a crazy comeback from 22nd position on the grid. Pecco Bagnaia was no less, even 24th at the start and with a sore shoulder after yesterday’s bad crash. The Ducati rider showed an incredible pace and, gritting his teeth, closed his race in 8th place, in the wake of the Marquez brothers who challenged each other to the finish, with Marc winning over Alex by 20 thousandths of a second. Ahead of them was Miguel Oliveira, with KTM.
A day to forget for Enea Bastianini, who arrived in Portugal at the head of the World Cup. Yesterday he took a blow to the hand when he crashed in qualifying and today he went to the ground on lap 10. He is now 4th in the championship, but only 8 points from the top. Little satisfaction also for Dovizioso, Marini and Morbidelli, who arrived 11th, 12th and 13th in parade. A point for Bezzecchi, who started from the second row.