Monster Energy Yamaha’s MotoGP held its 100% victory record this weekend after Fabio Quartararo converted pole position into his second win of the season with a perfect race in Portugal. The French took the win with 4.809 seconds in another master class of the factory Yamaha rider. PETRONAS Yamaha SRT returned to the top five and Franco Morbidelli drove strongly to fourth place.
Fabio Quartararo delivered another great performance at the MotoGP World Championship 2021 when the 21-year-old opened his European campaign with another race win and took the win at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.
From pole position, Quartararo was in sixth place at the end of the first lap. The pole sitter sat in the top group and quickly prevailed against his competitors. On lap four he returned to the podium. The Frenchman wasted no time improving the order and took the lead. On lap nine he overtook Johann Zarco and Alex Rins. With a clear trace in front of him, Quartararo showed his hand and immediately set the fastest lap of the race with a 1: 39.999 before improving it with another fastest lap, a 1: 39.472.
Rins tried to keep up with the race director but made a mistake and crashed, leaving Quartararo a comfortable lead over the rest of the field. He controlled the race to the end and crossed the finish line to take his second straight win and take the championship lead.
Teammate Maverick Viñales slipped from 12th on the grid to 21st but struggled through the field to eventually cross the finish line and take points in 11th, 23 seconds behind his race-winning Yamaha counterpart. Viñales goes into the fourth round with 41 points and 20 points behind team-mate and championship leader Quartararo and is in third place in the overall standings.
PETRONAS Yamaha SRT returned to the top five and Franco Morbidelli just missed the podium with fourth place. The Italian started the Grand Prix from fifth and was in a race-long battle for the top 5. After the first few laps, Morbidelli had slipped to seventh but quickly made it through the pack, finishing sixth after a fall before he passed Aleix Espargaro on lap seven and finished fifth. The 26-year-old saved his rear tire for a late attack, closing the gap on Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir, but missed a podium and finished fourth. After a strong start, teammate Valentino Rossi dropped out of the race as he battled for the top ten position.
After three laps, Yamaha led the world championship with Fabio Quartararo, while Viñales’ second factory Yamaha was third. Yamaha is also extending its lead in the constructors ‘championship, while Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP is heading to Jerez with a 41-point lead in the teams’ championship.
The MotoGP paddock will next travel to Spain for the fourth round of the MotoGP 2021 season. The Gran Premio de España will take place from April 30th to May 2nd, 2021 at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto.
Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 1st ..
“It’s good to be in that way of thinking again. I feel full of confidence. Because I had the confidence to take the Doha GP with me, I felt the same way here. We now know what to do to be competitive. As long as I have a good feeling about the front, I’ll go quickly. In today’s race I only focused on my riding – but what a pace! I did not expect it! I was about half a second away from my qualifying round so that was amazing. I also felt the pressure from Rins behind me. I wanted to make a void, but then he made a mistake. I drove well and easy and could still make a gap to Bagnaia so I was so happy. We did a great job! Yesterday we were the first in all sessions and today we won. So thanks to the team. These are important points, and now let’s go to one of my favorite songs, Jerez. I can’t wait to go there. This is a great way to start my birthday celebrations in two days. “
Franco Morbidelli – PETRONAS Yamaha SRT, 4th ..
“I’m very happy to be fourth today and it’s been a great weekend for us. The race was really good and I was able to fight my way through at the beginning. Then my rhythm and pace was good enough to stay there and fight for a podium. That surprised me a little and I’m proud that we did it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough potential to fully attack, but I’m still very happy with this result. It’s a good supply of energy after the two races in Qatar, the feeling with the bike is back and now we just have to enjoy this moment. Let’s see what happens in Jerez! “
Maverick Viñales – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 11th.
“I don’t know what it’s about yet, but I’m sure something was wrong. Our lap times were very slow. I couldn’t do anything from the first lap. It’s a shame because it wasn’t the result I was expecting. It’s kind of strange that from winning in Qatar and starting this weekend in first place, we’ve moved on to not being in the top 10 of the race. But you always have ups and downs, this is life. We now have time to analyze the situation. Of course, we have to change something to make our results more consistent. But after that we go to Jerez, which is a good route for us. I’ll just focus on that and forget about this race. “
Valentino Rossi – PETRONAS Yamaha SRT, DNF
“It was better today because we improved some settings on the bike and used the hard rear tire, which made me feel better. My pace was much better than yesterday, but unfortunately when you start from behind it’s always difficult. I lost a bit of time in the first corner, but after that I thought I could make it into the top ten. Unfortunately, I lost the front at Turn 11, it’s a pretty demanding corner on the front tire and my race was over. It’s a shame because we could have scored some good points today, but we know we’ve made improvements. “
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Team Director
“When we came here, we didn’t roar with confidence. Last year left some doubts in our minds, but after Fabio’s fantastic win today, which he achieved through sheer speed and the art of racing, we felt comfortable. The confidence Fabio had in his YZR-M1 allowed him to keep his head cool. He had a strong run from sixth to first place. Once at the front, he didn’t allow himself to be put under pressure from behind because he knew that he had the pace today. It was a big win for him personally and also for the team and Yamaha engineers in Japan – it shows how far we have come since November last year. However, it was a day of two extremes for the team. Maverick couldn’t find the trust he was looking for in the early stages. But he did good damage control. He pushed on and because of the many falls, the five points he scored today are all the more valuable. We’re going to look carefully at what kept Maverick from getting the feeling that he needs to be more competitive in this race in order for him to come back stronger at Jerez. “
Razlan Razali – PETRONAS Yamaha SRT, Team Principal
“It was a real roller coaster weekend for the team and another difficult one for us. We can look forward to a good fourth place in MotoGP for Franco. We all needed the good result and it will give him new confidence to come back even stronger on the next lap in Jerez. Valentino showed signs of improvement and was recovering well. Unfortunately he crashed, but there are some positive results that we can take out of the race today. “
Grand Prize 888 De Portugal Race Results:
- Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP)
- Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) +4,809
- Joan Mir (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) +4,948
- Franco Morbidelli (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) +5.127
- Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM factory race) +6,668
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) +8,885
- Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) +13.208
- Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Team) +17,992
- Enea Bastianini (Avintia sponsor) +22,369
- Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) +23,676
- Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) +23,761
- Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Avintia) +29,660
- Danilo Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing) +29,836
- Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) +38,941
- Iker Lecuona (Tech 3 KTM factory race) +50,642
- Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM factory race) +1 lap
- Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) +6 laps
- Alex Rins (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) +7 laps
- Valentino Rossi (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) +11 laps
- Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) +20 laps
- Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) +21 laps
2021 MotoGP World Championship:
- Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) 61 points
- Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) 46 points
- Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 41 points
- Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) 40 points
- Joan Mir (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) 38 points
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) 25 points
- Alex Rins (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) 23 points
- Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM works race) 21 points
- Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama) 18 points
- Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) 17 points
- Franco Morbidelli (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) 17 points
- Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) 14 points
- Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) 11 points
- Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) 9 points
- Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Team) 8 points
- Stefan Bradl (Repsol Honda Team) 7 points
- Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) 6 points
- Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Avintia) 4 points
- Valentino Rossi (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) 4 points
- Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM works race) 4 points
- Danilo Petrucci (Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing) 3 points
- Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) 2 points
23. Iker Lecuona (Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing) 1 point