Francesco Bagnaia streaked to an assured victory in the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Ducati man leading Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales by 0.687s at the line.
Bagnaia slipped into third early on having been passed by the fast-starting Miguel Oliveira, though swiftly managed to get the better of second-placed Jorge Martin and Oliveira to move into the lead in only the first couple of tours.
From then on he focussed on managing his tyres and sustaining a strong leading pace, one that only Vinales could live with as the battle for third raged behind.
Home hero Oliveira’s race was undone after pole-man Marc Marquez made an over-optimistic move into Turn 3 only a few laps in, the Honda racer collecting the rear of Martin before clattering into the side of the Portuguese – eliminating the pair on the spot while Martin continued in 16th.
Out front Bagnaia continued to hold steady over Vinales before beginning to extend his leading gap at around mid-distance, crafting nearly a second before the Aprilia started to slowly claw him back in as the race entered its final quarter.
Vinales found himself unable to break the reigning MotoGP world champion though and was ultimately forced to settle for the runners-up spot, Bagnaia taking the chequered flag just over a second to complete the clean sweep for the Portuguese weekend.
Marco Bezzecchi completed the rostrum in what was an ultra-strong showing for the VR46 sophomore pilot, the Italian having passed Jack Miller for the spot just prior to mid-distance and sprinting off into the distance to record his second career podium finish.
The battle for fourth meanwhile remained breathless until the very end, with Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez fighting tooth and nail to hold the spot, the Spaniard under heavy pressure from KTM duo Miller and Brad Binder.
Marquez led a train heading all the way back to ninth-placed Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha, though his valiant defence was eventually broken by Binder who slid past him into the second last bend – before he swiftly fell back behind Marquez as the Ducati powered past on the main straight.
Johann Zarco was the man making moves in the final few laps though as he managed to pass both KTM’s en-route to attacking Marquez, the Frenchman sliding through on Marquez as he ran wide at the second to last bend to secure fourth ahead of the 2019 Moto2 world champion.
Binder ended up securing sixth ahead of team-mate Miller, while Quartararo got the better of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro on the very final circulation to secure eighth from 11th on the grid.
Alex Rins enjoyed a solid debut outing on a Honda premier class machine to complete the top ten for LCR, the ex-Suzuki man denying old team-mate Joan Mir a place in the ten on his factory-run RC213-V.
Augusto Fernandez scored points on his MotoGP bow with 13th for GasGas, the reigning intermediate class world champion heading a distant Franco Morbidelli, who once again struggled to tame his M1.
Luca Marini saw a potential top ten result go begging after he crashed out in the closing stages, while Martin also saw his comeback ride ended early with a crash at Turn 10 while chasing down Quartararo.
Discussion about this post