The Key to the Portimao Race

1. Jorge Martín’s perfect career.

Everything went according to plan, perhaps the key was immediately leading the race, which gave him the opportunity to manage his wheels at will. This allowed him to reach the end of the race with ‘reserves’ to counter the attacks of his pursuers. Martín left Portugal as the leader of the championship.

2. Maverick’s gear broke on the last lap.

He could have fully challenged Jorge Martín for the win, but his gearbox started to fail on the sixth lap and finally ‘died’ at the start of the last lap. Aprilia should review its reliability protocols, as this is not the first time something like this has happened.

3. Absence of Acosta’s ‘hiya’.

The Murcian rider is very clear that the learning process has been accelerated by being at the forefront of the fight against the ‘untouchables’ of MotoGP, even if that means breaking the end of the race as happened in Qatar. In Portugal he repeated his tactic, passing his teammate Brad Binder, Champion Bagnaia and Marc Márquez on the way, to finally win his first MotoGP podium in his second race in the category.

4. The incident between Bagnaia and Marc Márquez.

As Márquez said after the race, “In the end we both left here with 0, which is something we didn’t deserve.” As for the offense that led the two to the ground, opinions are divided between a racial incident and an excess on the part of Bagnaia, who, by the way, was allowed last year in Jerez for a similar that maneuver.

5. Morbidelli’s attack on Mir.

In Portugal Joan had the most positive race in a long time, which could have been better if it wasn’t for an absurd attack by Morbidelli on the first lap, which led to his last finish. From there he went on to star in a recovery race to finish eleventh, which for Honda’s current season, is a good result.