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Quartararo conquers Portimão when Bagnaia decides on the podium against Mir
The role of the French continues to roll on the roller coaster while Bagnaia paves its way – and Mir takes his first podium of the season
Sunday April 18, 2021
They don’t get much better for Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) at the weekend. The Frenchman turned pole position into a win at the Grande Prémio 888 de Portugal when some big names fell out of the MotoGP ™ race, but the Frenchman remained cool and calm despite strong pressure from Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) at the front. However, it shouldn’t be for the number 42 when he retired. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) made his way to second place, only holding back third-placed Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar). Returning Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) struggled through the pain after a few brisk changes to finish P7.
The initial escape from polesitter Quartararo was better than ever, but in the second stage of the start, Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) and Rins defeated the Yamaha man and it was the Suzuki that actually took the holeshot. Zarco struck back to take the lead in the early race and Marc Marquez made a scorching start to battle for third place against Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team). I got off to a typically good start and was in the top five, and in the first round it was Mir against Marquez again. It wasn’t long before the reigning world champion pushed his GSX-RR into the interior of the Repsol Honda at Turn 11 for P3.
Zarco led the first lap and at Turn 3 Marc Marquez and Mir came closer again – too close. The eight-time world champion marked the back of Mir, who luckily stayed with me, but Quartararo managed to wind his way back to fourth place after Marquez. Miller and then Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) also overtook Marquez as number 93 to P7, with Rins showing Zarco a wheel closer to the front at Turn 13.
On lap 3 Quartararo made a clean climb inside Mir at turn 1 for P3. The Frenchman made quick progress after getting a bit beaten up at the beginning. A train at turn 13 on Zarco got stuck the third time when he asked a lap later. On lap 5, Rins was now the race director, but Zarco shot back down the straight. Then suddenly there was the sound of a bicycle going onto the deck and as the cameras panned we saw Miller at the start of lap six at Turn 3 below. The Australian’s Portuguese GP was over after a little over four laps, a disaster for the Ducati Mann factory. On the same lap, Miguel Oliveira’s (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) hopes of another podium on the Traumheim lap were over when the Portuguese star retired at Turn 14.
In the meantime, Quartararo Rins had followed Zarco and the Yamaha man had his radar set firmly to P1. Just like Mir’s other Suzuki, Quartararo dived down the hill from the inside at Turn 1 and El Diablo was now at the front of the race. Here Quartararo and Rins showed a certain superiority and a handful of laps later Mir was in third place one and a half seconds behind the leading duo. On lap 14 Quartararo drove a 1: 39.680 – the fastest lap. However, Rins matched the Yamaha at every turn for the time being, and the duo exchanged the fastest laps on numerous occasions. A colossal drama was about to unfold, however
First we saw Rins crash on Turn 5 on lap 19 of 25. The downhill, tricky left-hander caught the Spaniard who was standing directly behind Quartararo, and it was a race for number 42. Quartararo had a 4.2 second lead on Zarco, while Bagnaia took P3 from Mir at turn 5. A lap later at turn 11, the former world championship leader was on the ground. Zarco’s front washed away the top of the hill and the Frenchman slipped out of the competition shortly after Bagnaia picked him up at Turn 5.
And so the victory, apart from one disaster, was that of Quartararo. The podium fight, however, was still off to a good start. Bagnaia held P2 and looked good, with Mir having Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) in the mirror going into the final exchange. With two to go, the trios were united, but Pecco didn’t buckle and fifth, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), was less than a second from Morbidelli’s rear wheel. Bagnaia put pressure on me, but the Italian held on and on the final lap the Suzuki driver looked tempted …
Five seconds later, Quartararo drove across the line to claim his second win in 2021. An overwhelming win for the new Yamaha recruit, where he was 15 points ahead of Jerez – a track he was quite successful at last season. This is also the first time since 2010 that it is three out of three for Yamaha. Behind, Bagnaia was able to keep it simple to take an impressive recovery from 11th to P2 after a qualifying heartbreak, and he’s ranked P2 overall with his first podium of the year. I couldn’t get past the Ducati, but he held Morbidelli’s Yamaha back by 0.179 seconds to take his first podium of 2021, an important result for the world champion and another podium after starting from outside the top two rows. Somehow more of his podium places come from further down than none at all.
It was a return to form for fourth place Morbidelli as the Italian got back on the podium hopefully to dispel his ailments at Losail. Binder’s P5 proves once again that the South African is a Sunday rider through and through, and that’s a morally positive result for KTM and Binder ahead of Jerez – where the then rookie had some serious pace last year. Aleix Espargaro gives Aprilia an equivalent MotoGP ™ result in P6, another great drive by the Spaniard 4.3 seconds ahead of the next man on the track …
That man is Marc Marquez. The eight-time world champion finished his first race since the 2019 Valencia GP final and the Spaniard showed emotion when he got back to his pits. And in his debriefing.
Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol) took his first Top 10 of the year in P8, and reigning Moto2 ™ World Champion Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama) took his second Top 10 MotoGP ™ result in P9. It was another brilliant ride from ‘The Beast’ and what a great performance from 10th place Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu). The battered and injured Japanese rider has been in significant pain all weekend since his big fall at Turn 1 on Friday, but a P10 sums up how tough the MotoGP ™ riders are – physically and mentally.
Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) didn’t recover from a horror start and ended up benefiting from a couple of falls to finish in 11th place. Luca Marini (Sky VR46 Avintia) slipped from a P8 start to P12, but it was still a very promising weekend for the Italian and a good job after an incredible speed in training. Injured Danilo Petrucci (Tech3 KTM Factory Racing), Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) and Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM Factory Racing) completed the points, and Oliveira was the last finisher in P16 after his crash.
Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) crashed at Turn 11, driver okay, and Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) entered the pit lane early with a technical problem.
And go on. Quartararo marches on in the title race in 2021 and two of three wins are the Frenchman’s record in the direction of Jerez. A free weekend will be followed by the Spanish GP at the end of April / beginning of May, and the title race is already turning. After all, this is MotoGP ™ … so be sure to come back to find out more!
Fabio Quartararo: “Nice to feel back! I feel full of confidence. Bringing that trust from Qatar. Now we know what we need to do quickly. I just have to feel the front and I go fast and just focus on my riding. Woah, what the pace, I wasn’t expecting it, I was less than half a second away from my qualifying lap. It was amazing, also the pressure from Rins in the back, I wanted to make a gap. He made a mistake and then … I drove well; I was driving easy and still making a gap to Pecco.
“We did a great job, we were P1 all day yesterday, P1 today, thanks to the team. Key points and now let’s go to one of my favorite songs in Jerez. Cant wait to be there thank my family for watching. It will be a great celebration for my birthday in two days. “