The reasons why Portimao is the easiest MotoGP GP

After 21 weeks of waiting, the pilots of motorcycle world championship return this Friday on their motorcycles to start the 75th World Speed ​​​​​​Championship campaign and when he arrives at Le Mans he will complete the GP 1000. In MotoGP Pecco Bagnaia puts his MotoGP crown at stake, but in the other two categories the crown is vacant as the respective champions Augusto Fernández (Moto2) and Izan Guevara (Moto3) climb to the higher category.

Four times the MotoGP World Championship came to Portimao, which came to the Motorcycle World Championship to cover the casualties due to the pandemic in 2020 and it has remained a fixture and even now in 2023 Portugal’s calendar is opened for the first time at the expense of Qatar . , which, in the renovation of its Lusail circuit to make it a VIP facility at the height of the luxury of an F1 GP in the Middle East has been asked to organize its GP at the end of October.

This Thursday is the opportunity to photograph the three grillss and also a MotoGP from each of the teams, with anecdotes of riders who arrived late in two small categories and delayed the moment. This is also the day of the verifications of the riders’ kits and also of the homologation of their motorcycles -sealed engines and the first aerodynamic specification of the two they will need- to get everything ready for the 2023 debut.

Portimao was the easiest GP for the riders as they enjoyed two full days in MotoGP and three days of Moto2 and Moto3 to do the set-up, as it was the last and final official tests, making the these where each other. really and you can make races easier with more drivers risking victory. And these tests give Pecco Bagnaia (MotoGP), Pedro Acosta (Moto2) and Riccardo Rossi (Moto3), authors of their respective best times, as favorites.

But according to data from the Brembo brake brand, in 9 of the 15 curves at the Portuguese track, MotoGP riders use the brakes for 28 seconds per lap, which equates to 29% of the race’s duration. All of this is complicated by its constant ups and downs that make it difficult for riders to gauge when to let off the accelerator, with the risk of being too late on the descent or braking too early on the uphill.

MotoGP: 22 riders and 13 world champions

In the star grid of 22 drivers, 10 of them Spanish, there are 13 world champions, one less than in 2022, which is the record, having accumulated 24 titles, same as in 2022 -the record was 32 titles in 2018 with Rossi, Lorenzo and Pedrosa on the grid then-18. But only four of them are MotoGP champions -they have accumulated nine titles-, Marc Márquez, Joan Mir, Fabio Quartararo and Pecco Bagnaia. 13 drivers have won premier class races, one more than in 2022, and they have 116 victories combined, five more than in 2022. But cWith 59 MotoGP victories, Marc Márquez has more than all other riders combined. (57). All 22 drivers have GP wins in at least one category, totaling 326 Grand Prix victories.

The only newcomer – who was left without a rookie trophy at the FIM gala in Valencia as he will be the only one to leave it vacant – is Augusto Fernández. The oldest pilot is Aleix Espargaró, with 33 years and 239 days and the youngest is Raúl Fernández, 22 years and 154 days. The average age of the grid is 27 years and four months (compared to 26 years and seven months in 2022).

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Moto2: 30 riders and four champions

In Moto2, whose grid will be 30 riders, 12 of them Spanish, the champion Augusto Fernández leaves for MotoGP and comes the Moto3 owner Izan Guevara, who will unfortunately leave Portimao and Termas de Río Hondo as well as current runner-up Ai Ogura , both recently operated on for preseason injuries. The world champions are Pedro Acosta (Moto3 in 2021), Albert Arenas (Moto3 in 2020) and Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Moto3 in 2019). There have been nine Moto2 race winners sharing 32 victories.

Moto3: 28 riders and no champion

28 pilots will be part of the small grid whose minimum age for participation is 18 years old, except for those who have already become champions of the training cups. There are 8+1 Spanish pilots since that ninth, David Alonso, born in Madrid, runs with a Colombian license, his mother’s country. There are no world champions in their ranks and there are two winners of the Red Bull Rookies Cup and another two in the Junior World Cup, with a double title for José Antonio Rueda, one of the rookies. At 27 years and 70 days, Romano Fenati is the oldest and David Muñoz, at 16 years and 313 days, is the youngest.