MotoGP: Quartararo goes back-to-back in Portimao, Marquez 7th

Round three of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship took place in Portimao, at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. Fabio Quartararo started from his first pole position of 2021.

It was a good launch from Quartararo, but a better one from Alex Rins, who started second. Then, when the Ducati of Johann Zarco got wound up form third, he was able to overcome the pair of them into turn one, and lead the opening laps. 

It was not until turn 13 on lap four that Zarco was headed. Rins was able to use the superior agility of the Suzuki to pass the #5 Ducati, but Zarco, in turn, was able to use the superior power of the Ducati to pass the #42 Suzuki in the straight. 

One lap later, and the move of Rins was repeated, and this time he was backed up by Quartararo, who helped out his fellow inline-four rider by getting between Rins and Zarco in turn 14. Quartararo’s pass prevented Zarco from making places in the straight, and that meant that the Suzuki and the Yamaha were able to get away at the front with superior pace. 

Quartararo and Rins were eventually able to extend their advantage out to approaching three seconds, and they were trading fastest laps as they went. As much pressure as Rins applied, Quartararo had sufficient sponges to soak it up. That was, until Rins crashed on lap 18 in turn five, and his victory challenge and race were both over. 

That left Quartararo unchallenged at the front. He had picked the hard-option rear tyre on the grid before the warm-up lap, due to the high track temperatures. In fact, all of the Yamahas had chosen the hard rear tyre, but Quartararo was the one who was best placed to take advantage of it, and he preserved it well to the end of the race, which he won with relative comfort to take the championship lead by 15 points over Francesco Bagnaia. 

Bagnaia himself had rode a superb race, to come from 11th on the grid to finish second, fending off the pressure from Joan Mir at the end when the Suzuki came into its own with superior tyre wear, having moved up to third following a crash for Zarco at turn 10 on lap 20. Although it was an impressive ride from the Italian, it will be tinged with the feeling of ‘what could have been’, after his fest-enough-for-pole lap in Q2 yesterday was deleted for a yellow flag for which there is a strong argument against its visibility. Nonetheless, considering his starting position, it is difficult to see how Bagnaia could have done more than he did. 

Joining Quartararo and Bagnaia on the podium was Joan Mir, who, like in Qatar One, was looking slow in the middle of the race and out of the fight for the podium, only to come on strong at the end having saved some tyre in the middle. Although he was faster than Bagnaia at the end, the Spaniard was unable to take advantage of this, in part thanks to the Ducati’s straight line speed, in part thanks to Bagnaia’s strong defensive riding and in part thanks to the difficulty of overtaking in the tight, twisty, undulating Portimao. But, it was Mir’s first podium of the season and he will back himself to kick on from here. 

Franco Morbidelli was back to form this weekend, looking like the slowest rider out there while in actuality being one of the fastest. This was especially true at the end of the race, when he, like Mir, was able to use the grip he saved in the rear tyre in the middle of the race to rejoin the podium fight and apply the pressure to Bagnaia. Like Mir, though, Morbidelli was not able to do anything with his extra grip, and was forced to settle for fourth, although after the difficulties of Qatar, this was a positive step for the #21.

Rounding out the top five was the impressive Brad Binder, who out-performed his motorcycle and everyone else riding motorcycles of the same brand to finish fifth, also with strong pace at the end. It was a good start from Binder, and he was eighth from 15th on the grid after the first few corners. From there he was able to take advantage of others’ mistakes and in the end was not too far from the podium battle. Fifth is Binder’s best finish since Austria 2020, and in the early stages of 2021 he has singled himself out among the KTM stable as the rider to perhaps lead the project going forwards. 

Aleix Espargaro had another strong ride, with impressive pace, for Aprilia, and proved that the performances in Qatar were not flukes. He finished in front of the returning Marc Marquez, who had a quiet ride to seventh, precisely what he needed in his first race back with limited strength and endurance in his right arm. It will only get better from here for the #93. 

Behind Marquez was his brother, the #73 LCR Honda of Alex Marquez, who scored LCR their first points of the season in eighth. His teammate, Takaaki Nakagami, also scored his first points of 2021 with 10th, and in between them was the top rookie, Enea Bastianini, who took his second top 10 of the season, and his best MotoGP finish of ninth. 

Maverick Vinales had a puzzling race, lapping up to two seconds off the pace in the beginning of the race, before finally dropping into the 1’40s after half-distance. He finished 11th, ahead of Luca Marini who took his first points in MotoGP with 12th, and no doubt learned a lot riding around behind Marc Marquez for a few laps in the first half of the race. 

Behind Marini was Danilo Petrucci, who took his first points for KTM with 13th, in front of Lorenzo Savadori in 14th, and Iker Lecuona in 15th; while Miguel Oliveira was 16th and last of the classified finishers, the Portuguese remounting after a crash in turn 14 and finishing a lap down. 

Pol Espargaro was the first retirement, coming into the pits with what looked to be mechanical issues for the #44 Repsol Honda five laps in. 

Jack Miller went down one lap later in turn three, with what looked like a mistake in the initial grab of the brakes out of turn two. The braking zone is complicated there, because the riders spin the rear tyre through turn two, which unloads the front tyre a lot, but then they have to slow down a lot for the super-tight turn three. Additionally, there is no point between turns two and three where the bike is upright, so it is easy to overload the front. Miller was pushing on when he crashed, fighting inside the top five, but his mistake means, from his first three races inside the factory Ducati team, he has scored just 14 points. 

Valentino Rossi appeared to have made some progress with his feeling with the Yamaha M1 on Sunday, and was able to make progress from his lowly grid position of 17th, and lap in the mid-1’40s. But he crashed with 11 laps to go, and his dismal start to the season continued. He was followed onto the sidelines by Alex Rins and Johann Zarco, who both went down fighting for the podium.