Quartararo achieved success and leadership in Portimao

After spending the preseason complaining about the inferiority of his Yamaha compared to other brands, Fabio Quartararo continued to put in extra -his teammate Morbidelli finished 33 “354- and made a 2×1 in Portimao. In his first victory of the year in the Portuguese GP’s MotoGP race became the new championship leader tied in points with so many Alex Rins starting at 23rd finishing fourth in the race, no podium but the jackpot of being co- leader although the French were first by a larger number of victories.

For Quartararo, this was his first victory as world champion since earlier on Aug. 29 at Silverstone and for Aleix Espargaró, his third podium was third with Aprilia, second of the year after the Termas victory and brought Aprilia close to losing to technical. concessions, adds 5 points and one point away from losing them. One from Granollers is three points behind Quartararo and Rins.

Unity in the choice of medium-medium tires except for Pol Espargaró and Alex Márquez who opted for the hard rear. Because qualifying was unique, many changes were expected in the first laps and there Fabio Quartararo, who was seen canceling his best lap in Q2, quickly turned around.

Mir led the way out

Zarco lost the initiative at the hands of a Joan Mir who came out determined from the first lap and behind him was a brilliant start by Alex Rins, from 23rd to tenth place in the first lap. Only Fabio Quartararo tried to follow Mir, who quickly eliminated Aleix Espargaró, Miller and Zarco and the last two world champions remained at the top of the race. Bad start for Marc Márquez, who hasn’t taken starting spots since ninth place and is tangled up in the middle of a peloton battling for ninth place with three remaining Hondas -Alex Márquez is the best, fifth- with Binder and Bastianini.

But on the fourth lap Quartararo noticed Joan Mir in the middle of the straight because of the higher acceleration, Yamaha doesn’t do too badly on straights less than 1,000 meters, and reversed the situation, from prosecutor to prosecutor and quickly put up 7 tenths on the Mallorcan who became 1 “6 three laps later in pure sledgehammer style by Jorge Lorenzo with Yamaha years ago and the Mallorcan Zarco caught on to who he was with on the tenth lap.

The show is in the back, in the match 4 for fifth place by Aleix Espargaró with Rins, Alex Márquez and Oliveira and in the quintet for the top-9 led by Marc Márquez where leader Enea Bastianini dropped due to the fall in the tenth lap, the Italian from Gresini was already caught on the wrist in the fall of Q1, and Nakagami.

Quartararo, who had already won Portimao in the first of last year’s races from pole position, continued to set the pace without error and behind Mir and Zarco they were joined by Jack Miller. With 10 remaining, Zarco passed Mir on the straight, but the Spaniard recovered under the brakes as Aleix Espargaró along with Alex Rins came from behind. After a turn, Zarco was put together.

Ninth incident between Mir and Miller

With 7 to go the drama has arrived for Joan Mir when for third place Jack Miller He wore it when braking on turn 1 because he couldn’t turn it off and lost the bike and added Suzuki’s, courtesy of his rival, to the first zero of the year when he became the new virtual leader in the first laps of Portimao . A racing incident ended in a hug between two drivers that was less verbal and non -verbal last year.

That allowed Aleix Espargaró to win two spots at once, to take third place and with Johann Zarco already in range. In fourth place, Alex Rins was more satisfied after starting 23rd on the grid, 13 crucial points for him.

Márquez’s first fight in the race

For sixth place there was the first match of a MotoGP race between the Márquez brothers, intense as usual with them, whatever it was, by bike, flat track, motocross or karts, and which won the biggest in small, but 16 “from the head and with another intense between Pol Espargaró and Pecco Bagnaia behind him, which the Italian scored for eighth place after exceeding the limit where he preceded a piece of Sling .

Aleix Espargaró had two laps to change his third in a second after his excellent wheel management, a classification that would return him to the world championship leadership lost to Austin. But on the last lap Zarco didn’t give the Aprilia rider a chance.

As for the remaining Spaniards, tenth were Maverick Viñales and Jorge Martín in the sixth lap when he was tenth, he fell on his sworn circuit, third zero in the race of the year.