By
Costa Gazi
23/3/2024
The Portimao Sprint race was highly spectacular and competitive, with many swaps, crashes and mistakes, with Maverick Vinales finally managing to take his first win with Aprilia in his 3rd season as a factory rider, and with Marc Marquez takes 2nd place with his sword, even winning with a spectacular overtaking of Jorge Martin in the last lap of the race!
The lights go out and Vinales takes the first turn, but at the second turn Miller is pushed on the inside, leaving no room for the Spanish Aprilia rider. The two make contact, with the KTM rider passing him in front.
At the same time, Marc Marquez has made a great start, having already gained a place, with Bagnaia moving into second in the hunt for the Australian.
Fourth behind Vinales is poleman Bastianini, while Marc Marquez passes Martin to move into fifth.
The start is very bad for the talented Pedro Acosta who from 6th has already found himself 11th!
Before closing the very first lap Miller has managed to create a small gap from 2nd Bagnaia, while Bastianini making a mistake opens his line to pass Marc Marquez who is making leaps and bounds for fourth.
Further back, 5 places have already been won by Aleix Espargaro who is 8th, while Bezzecchi has already lost 6 places! The top Japanese bike rider in the 2nd round is Quartararo in… 11th place, while the best placed Honda rider is Zarco in 17th place.
The gap that Miller built up has already evaporated, with Marquez continuing his wild run to spectacularly pass Vinales to take third behind Bagnaia and Miller!
The battle between Martin and Bastianini is fierce, with the Prima Pramac rider eventually prevailing, and “Bestia” falling to 5th… good pole position, but still the Italian seems to be suffering in the battles of the race.
With 10 laps to go before the checkered flag, Bagnaia takes the lead, with Marc Marquez close on the Australian’s tail, also setting the fastest time of all at 1:38.893.
Vinales in the meantime passes Marquez, but opens up at the exit, with the Spaniard passing again for 3rd.
Here we have a fall from Alex Rins, who was in 9th place. Fortunately the Yamaha rider is not hit, but after his fall he leaves the race.
In the same lap Marc Marquez passes Miller in turn to find himself behind the leader Bagnaia who has created a small gap from his pursuers.
As usual Miller beyond the space performance of the start has started to go… in reverse to find himself from 1st, 4th and continues to be a moving buoy.
Fastest time of all with 9 laps to go is Pedro Acosta with 1:38.678 who is currently 9th.
Zarco also falls, who gets back on his Honda to continue from last place. He will be quickly followed by both KTM’s Brad Binder in 13th and VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio in 11th. Both riders are unbeaten.
Acosta continues his climb to 7th past Aleix Espargaro, but driving at the limit again, and we all wonder if he’s learned his lesson from Qatar about tire wear.
Meanwhile with 8 laps to go, Marc Marquez almost hit the brakes, and opening his line, he loses 2nd place to Vinales, with Jorge Martin now stuck behind him.
The above phase has given an advantage to Bagnaia who leaves one second ahead.
Note that Bagnaia has not won a Sprint race since last August in Austria, but in Portimao he looks set to take an unlikely victory.
Martin doesn’t wait too long behind Marquez, and with 7 laps to go he makes his move passing the 8-time World Champion very aggressively and cleanly.
With six laps to go, the top five consists of Bagnaia, Vinales, Martin, Marquez and Miller, three Ducatis, an Aprilia and a KTM.
Martin sets the fastest lap in pursuit of Vinales, although the Aprilia rider manages to stay in front, even closing his gap on Bagnaia.
And where everything was going clock for the 2023 Champion, Bagnaia brakes too late in 1, his bike comes to the side, and in order not to fall he leaves the brakes off the line and the track, to come back without falling to 4th place behind Marquez! So much work…
With four laps to go, the trio of Vinales, Martin, Marc Marquez are 1.2 seconds clear of Bagnaia who has Miller on his tail. Sixth is Bastianini, 7th is Acosta.
With three laps to go, Martin has caught up with Vinales, with Marquez not looking able to threaten – or unwilling to push and risk a fall – but staying a steady close distance behind them.
In the next lap the situation remains unchanged, while a mistake by Martin means that the Prima Pramac rider loses contact with Vinales, only for Marc Marquez to be very close to him.
And where we all wondered if Marquez would settle for 3rd place, he pays Martin in the same coin, passing him…filler on the last lap!
The checkered flag falls, and “Top Gun” pulls off a surprise win for the first time with a factory Aprilia and showing that he still has more to offer and that it may be too early for Aprilia to be talking to Quartararo and Digia looking to replace him. replace after 2024.
Behind him Marc Marquez takes a well-deserved 2nd place – his first podium with his new Ducati, only in the 2nd round of 2024 – leaving behind one of the big favourites, Jorge Martin in the last place on the podium!
Bagnaia will finish fourth, and the top five will be closed with his teammate, Enea Bastianini.
Pedro Acosta improves on his Qatar race performance to finish a very good 7th, with the future looking bright for the Pierer Group rider. Still, at least here, Miller with a 5th place maintained – if only briefly – the advantage over the rider who is set to replace him on the factory KTM.
The best placed Japanese rider is Quartararo in 9th, while for Honda the honor goes to Joan Mir in 14th.
Last again is Luca Marini, in a season that is developing nightmarishly for him.
After the Portimao Sprint race, the top five of the overall season standings are as follows:
1. Pecco Bagnaia, 37 points
2. Jorge Martin, 35
3. Brad Binder, 29
4. Marc Marquez, 27
5. Maverick Vinales, 27
Here is the ranking of the Portimao Sprint race.
POSITION
RIDER
CLUB
TIME / DIFFERENCE
1
12M. Viñales
Aprilia Racing
19:49.636
2
93M. Marquez
Gresini Racing MotoGP™
1.039
3
89J. Martin
Prima Pramac Racing
1.122
4
1F. Bagnaia
Ducati Lenovo Team
4.155
5
43J. Miller
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
4.329
6
23E. Bastianini
Ducati Lenovo Team
4.384
7
31P. Acosta
Red Bull GASGAS Tech3
5.088
8
41A. Espargaro
Aprilia Racing
6.161
9
20F. Quartararo
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™
7.501
10
25R. Fernandez
Trackhouse Racing
8.484
11
72M. Bezzecchi
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
9.529
12
88M. Oliveira
Trackhouse Racing
10.519
13
73A. Marquez
Gresini Racing MotoGP™
11.458
14
36J. Mir
Repsol Honda Team
14.035
15
37A. Fernandez
Red Bull GASGAS Tech3
14.853
16
21F. Morbidelli
Prima Pramac Racing
16.049
17
30T. Nakagami
LCR Honda
16.398
18
10L. Marini
Repsol Honda Team
24.907
NOT CLASSIFIED
5J. Zarco
LCR Honda
5 laps
49F. Di Giannantonio
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
3 laps
33B. Binder
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
3 laps
42A. Rins
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™
2 laps