MotoGP Portugal Results, Race - Dramatic race shows what's in store in 2023

The 2023 MotoGP season begins this weekend in Portimao with the Portuguese Grand Prix, as Francesco Bagnaia begins his world title defence. This page will be updated with MotoGP Portugal results throughout the weekend.

Overview

Grand Prix - Bagnaia completes first MotoGP 'double', Marquez wipes out Oliveira

Sprint - Francesco Bagnaia kicks off title defence with historic first Sprint win

Qualifying - Marc Marquez stuns Ducati with all-time lap record for Portimao pole

FP2 - Multiple red flags interrupt session, Miller ends fastest for KTM

FP1 - Alex Marquez begins new Gresini Ducati chapter on top

Grand Prix

The first MotoGP full-length race of the season saw a fantastic display from Francesco Bagnaia who took the first Grand Prix win of the season in the premier class.

With the MotoGP Sprint result having no influence on the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix race, the only change for the GP grid compared to the Sprint was the absence of Enea Bastianini in sixth, which promoted everyone who was slower than the #23 in qualifying up one place.

It also meant that Marc Marquez started from pole position, but it was Jorge Martin who made the holeshot, before contact with Marquez sent the #89 to second, Marquez to fourth behind Francesco Bagnaia, and Miguel Oliveira to the front.

Bagnaia began lap two in third place, and ended it in the lead, after a pass on Martin in turn one, and then on Oliveira in turn 13.

Bagnaia got a helping hand from Marquez at the beginning of lap three, when the Spaniard braked too late into turn three, clipping Martin, and cleaning out Oliveira, who had to be taken away on a stretcher, but was later seen sitting up before being taken to the medical centre. Martin continued, but down in 16th, while Marquez was out on the spot, and was discovered later to have sufered a "possible fracture," the Repsol Honda Team said, of the first metacarpal of his right hand.

Although Bagnaia’s gap after Marquez’ mistake was approaching one second, Maverick Vinales had it down to less than half-a-second by the beginning of lap five.

The two spent the middle of the race pulling away from Marco Bezzecchi, who sat third, with both Bagnaia and Vinales having their strong points, and with the former happy to lead, the latter happy to follow.

On lap 12, Bagnaia pulled the pin. A 1:38.9 was followed by a 1:38.8 on lap 13, and the gap was out to around 0.7 seconds with 12 laps to go. 

As the race entered its final 10 laps, Bagnaia stretched his advantage out to over one second, and Vinales’ attention began to turn rearwards to Bezzecchi, who was closing on the #12 Aprilia.

The pressure from behind began to push Vinales back towards Bagnaia, and by the end of lap 17, Vinales had the gap stabilised around one second, and nudging under it.

It did not last, though, and Bagnaia began pulling away again past lap 20, while Vinales was similarly pulling away from Bezzecchi, who in turn had escaped from Alex Marquez.

Marquez, though, led a monumental battle for fourth, which included both factory KTM riders - Jack Miller and Brad Binder - as well as Aleix Espargaro and Johann Zarco. 

Vinales had one final push on the penultimate lap. Over the line onto the final lap, he had brought the gap down to 0.6 seconds, but in the end he could not make a move on Bagnaia, who completed a perfect score of the opening weekend of the season.

Behind second-placed Vinales was Marco Bezzecchi, who opened a Grand Prix season with a podium for the first time in his career. 

The battle for fourth place went the way of Johann Zarco in the end, thanks to some superb battling from the French rider on the final lap to sweep it away from Alex Marquez in the penultimate corner. 

Marquez himself hung on for fifth, ahead of sixth-placed Brad Binder - an heroic ride considering his physical condition - and the second factory KTM of Jack Miller. 

Fabio Quartararo got the better of Aleix Espargaro on the penultimate lap to finish eighth, while Espargaro was ninth, and the top 10 was completed by Alex Rins, who was the top-placed Honda rider at the finish.

Full MotoGP Portugal results from the Grand Prix in Portimao are below.

2023 Portuguese Grand Prix | Autodromo Internacional do Algarve | Race Results

Sprint

Saturday at the opening round of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship season saw the first Sprint race for the series. Marc Marquez started on pole position after a stunning lap in Q2 a few hours before the start of the Sprint, which in the end was won by Francesco Bagnaia, who heads into Sunday’s Grand Prix as the World Championship leader. 

From pole position, Marc Marquez made the holeshot ahead of Enea Bastianini, who was forced out of the way by Francesco Bagnaia in turn three on the first lap. 

Bagnaia was then able to out-drag Marquez to the line on the exit of the final corner, and he led the opening lap.

Bagnaia’s anxiety to get to the front was made clear on the next lap, when his Ducati teammate, the aforementioned Bastianini, ran wide in turn five, and Luca Marini cleaned him out when he lost the front trying to take advantage of the #23.

Jorge Martin took the lead from Bagnaia at the beginning of lap four, getting a better run than Bagnaia over the crest out of the final corner, and getting ahead before the braking zone. 

Jack Miller was also able to pass Bagnaia, and although the Australian looked to challenge for the lead in the middle part of the race, he ended up losing second to Bagnaia at the beginning of lap 10.

A lap later, Miguel Oliveira took Miller for third in turn one, but ran both of them wide, allowing Marc Marquez through.

On the final lap, Martin ran wide in turn five, allowing Bagnaia back into the lead, which the Italian did not relinquish. Behind Bagnaia was Martin, while Marquez completed the podium.

Jack Miller was fourth on his KTM debut, ahead of the two factory Aprilia riders, Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, were fifth and sixth, respectively, after fighting incredibly hard with each other throughout the second-half of the 12 laps. 

Miguel Oliveira took third place from Marquez on the final lap, but also lost it on the final lap, when he ran wide at turn 10. The Portuguese ended seventh, ahead of Johann Zarco, while Alex Marquez took the final point in ninth, and Fabio Quartararo completed the top 10, having dropped to the back of the pack following an aggressive move from Joan Mir early in the race which left the 2020 champion out on the spot.

Full MotoGP Portugal results from the Portimao Sprint are below.
 

2023 Portuguese Grand Prix | Autodromo Internacional do Algarve | Sprint Results

Qualifying

Qualifying for the Portuguese MotoGP took place strangely early, thanks to the new weekend format, and under cloudless skies. Conditions remained stable throughout, and that stability was exploited best by Marc Marquez who took the first pole position of 2023.

In Q1, the two-wheeled lap record at Portimao was broken for the sixth time this weekend by Marc Marquez on his first run. He set a 1:37.675 that put him three-tenths-of-a-second clear of Miguel Oliveira with half of Q1 remaining.

Marquez' time was so fast that he decided to not even bother with a second run in Q1, and he immediately turned his attention to Q2. He was almost joined by his brother, Alex Marquez, in advancing to Q2, but instead it was Oliveira. 

In the end, it was quite a disappointment for Alex Marquez, who topped Practice 1 on Friday morning, but will start both the Sprint race and the Grand Prix from 13th. Although, the #73 was not helped by Franco Morbidelli, who he had been using as a marker on his second run in Q1, but who also backed out of his final timed lap right in front of the Gresini Ducati rider.

Immediately, the lap record was once again broken in Q2, as Jack Miller fired in a 1:37.549, which no one was able to even get remotely close to ofr a while thanks to yellow flags for a crash for Aleix Espargaro at turn 13.

Jorge Martin was the first rider to get within a tenth' of Miller at the end of his first run, and Miller's hopes of furthering his advantage at the top ended when he crashed on his second run at turn three.

In the end, the crash cost Miller, as his old teammate, Francesco Bagnaia, reclaimed the lap record for himself with a 1:37.290, before Marc Marquez used the tow of Bagnaia's Ducati teammate, Enea Bastianini, to take pole position with a 1:37.226. Astonishingly, and perhaps worryingly, that is over 1.5 seconds clear of the previous lap record, which stood before this weekend, from 2021.

Bagnaia's 37.290 was enough to secure him in second place, ahead of Jorge Martin who completed the front row. Row two will be headed by Miguel Oliveira, the top Aprilia, before the top KTM, Jack Miller, in fifth, and the seocnd factory Ducati of Enea Bastianini in sixth. 

Maverick Vinales will start from the front of the third row, ahead of the VR46 duo of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini; while Johann Zarco completes the top 10, and will be joined by Fabio Quartararo, the top Yamaha, and Aleix Espargaro on row four.

Full MotoGP Portugal results from qualifying in Portimao are below.

2023 Portuguese Grand Prix | Autodromo Internacional do Algarve | Qualifying Results

Free Practice 2

In comparison to the cloudy skies of Friday morning's first practice session, the 2023 MotoGP riders were presented with much sunnier conditions in the afternoon's FP2 session, which was topped by Jack Miller.

Just under 15 minutes into FP2, the session was red-flagged. Prior to the red flag being thrown, live timing had gone down, and it is thought that the sessions was stopped due to a power outage which affected the circuit's facilities, in general, including the media centre and - more importantly - Race Direction. In the end, the red flag lasted around 30 minutes.

Only a couple of minutes after the resumption of the session, Marco Bezzecchi crashed at turn nine, which well and truly wrecked the #72 VR46 Ducati. Only a couple of minutes later, Augusto Fernandez crashed, also in a left-hander, that of turn nine. 

During the aforementioned red flag, MotoGP journalist Tammy Gorali tweeted that the wind always picks up at Portimao at around 16:00. Sure enough, by 15:59, the MotoGP world feed pit lane reporter, Jack Appleyard, reported a strong headwind in pit lane. The red flag, then, had made the time attacks that would arrive at the end of the session even more risky, but no less necessary. 

The time attacks actually began very early. There were still 28 minutes on the clock in FP2 when Marc Marquez sent the #93 Repsol Honda to the top, although it did not last long, as Jorge Martin broke the all-time lap record moments after Marquez crossed the line himself.

Francesco Bagnaia's attempt at a fast lap almost ended in the tyre wall, as he lost the front in the final corner. Fortunately for the Italian, he was able to recover, and not crash, thanks to an impressive save.

A few minutes later, the RNF Racing riders - Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira - were less fortunate than Bagnaia, and crashed. The Oliveira crash happened at turn 10, came moments after Fernandez' at turn 13, and moments after Pol Espargaro, who was being attended by circuit doctors in the turn 10 run-off area when a second red flag of FP2 was thrown, crashed. 

The MotoGP TV direction has been criticised quite heavily in recent years for its coverage of serious crashes, such as that which led to the death of Jason Dupasquier in qualifying for the Moto3 Italian Grand Prix in 2021. On this occasion, nothing seemed to change, as the director cut back and forth between shots of the pits and shots - from two different circuit cameras - of doctors and marshals treating Espargaro in the run-off area of turn 10. A Race Direction notification popped up at the bottom of the screen during the red flag period whcih read that Espargaro was conscious, and a few minutes later a brief replay was broadcast on the world feed which showed Espargaro high-siding while braking over the crest into turn 10, and heading towards the barrier with the bike following him immediately. 

Espargaro was eventually able to be taken by ambulance to the circuit medical centre. At the time of writing, the latest update is that Pol Espargaro was transferred to hospital, having not lost consciousness but having sustained back and chest trauma.

After the red flag, Luca Marini looked to be the first rider set to head to the top of the times, but he crashed at turn 14, putting his Q2 chances in doubt.

Then came the 1:37s. No one had ever lapped the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in under 98 seconds on two wheels before the final day of the official MotoGP test there two weeks ago. By the end of FP2 of the Grand Prix, there had been six laps under 1:38. The first came from Francesco Bagnaia in testing, the second from Jorge Martin in FP2, and the third from Bagnaia again to better Martin's time. It was fortunate for Bagnaia that he got his 1:37.856 in when he did, as his Ducati Desmosedici GP ground to a halt on his next lap.

The final three 1:37s came after Bagnaia had got his bike back to pit lane, and firstly from Luca Marini, then from Maverick Vinales, and then - shockingly - from KTM's Jack Miller, who took the lap record for himself with a 1:37.709.

While Miller was setting lap records, Marc Marquez crashed out of the session at turn three while following Fabio Quartararo. His crash, and the lack of pace from he and his Honda stablemates, meant that all four RC213Vs will be in Q1 tomorrow.

Instead, of Hondas, there was at least one bike from each of the other four manufacturers in the top 10 combined times at the end of FP2, topped by Jack Miller and KTM. Maverick Vinales was able to put his Aprilia second, ahead of the Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia, who was backed up by two more Ducatis, as Luca Marini and Jorge Martin finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Fabio Quartararo completed the top six, ahead of Johann Zarco, Marco Bezzecchi, Aleix Espargaro, and Enea Bastianini.

Full MotoGP Portugal results from Portugal combined practice are below.

2023 Portuguese Grand Prix | Autodromo Internacional do Algarve | Combined FP Results

Free Practice 1

The 2023 MotoGP season is finally underway, the premier class of Grand Prix racing having completed their first practice session at the first round of the season, the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao, with Alex Marquez ending the first practice session of the season on top in his first GP weekend with Gresini Racing Ducati.

The early part of FP1 for MotoGP was conditioned by weather. Rain had begun to fall with around 20 minutes to go in the Moto2 session which preceded the MotoGP practice, and while the track was essentially completely dry at the beginning of the MotoGP session the riders were circulating with great caution in the opening minutes of the season.

For Franco Morbidelli, there was almost too much caution. The heat dropped out of his Michelin rear tyre, and he high-sided at turn eight, in a crash which was not entirely dissimilar to the one which put Francesco Bagnaia in hospital after qualifying for last year's Portuguese GP. Fortunately, Morbidelli was able to get straight back on his bike and get back to the pits, although it was not the best way for the factory Yamaha rider to begin a season in which he is affirmatively in need of putting out a strong advert for himself.

Overall, the first minutes of MotoGP FP1 were quite dull, bar Morbidelli's crash. Two weeks ago, there was a two-day official test in Portimao, so the teams and riders are well-dialled-in with their respective motorcycles in Portimao, and throwing said motorcycles up the road, à la Morbidelli, was a risk with essentially no reward, and therefore not one to be taken.

At the test, Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed on the first day and was forced to miss the second day as he had concussion symptoms. He, along with Aleix Espargaro (who had to have surgery for fibrosis in his arms after the first day of the test), was one of the few riders not-so-dialled-in with the Portimao circuit, and so another crash with around 25 minutes remaining in FP1 was not what the #49 needed. In any case, that's what he got, with a fairly heavy crash at turn five from which he hopped straight back to his feet. The Italian seemed fine after the crash.

Eventually, the times started to drop, and that advancement was led by Pramac Ducati's Jorge Martin with a 1:39.206, who headed Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez as the session entered the final 15 minutes.

The new weekend format of the MotoGP weekend for 2023 means that only Friday's practice times count for Q1/Q2 qualification. As a result, the time attacks begin now with 10 minutes to go in FP1, it turns out. At least, for more riders - Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez were among those who chose to save soft-compound rear tyres for later in the weekend. 

Following on from one of the themes of 2022, it was Ducati domination at the top during the time attacks, with Gresini's Alex Marquez topping the times, and four Ducati riders in the top five places. Only Joan Mir, on the Repsol Honda, interrupted the Ducati supremacy as he finished FP1 in second place. 

There was then a Mooney VR46 3-4 with Luca Marini ahead of Marco Bezzecchi, while Johann Zarco was fifth. Maverick Vinales was the top Aprilia rider in sixth, ahead of Jorge Martin, Fabio Quartararo, reigning World Champion Francesco Bagnaia, and Marc Marquez, who completed the top 10 in the first session of 2023.

Full MotoGP FP1 times from Portimao are below.

2023 Portuguese Grand Prix | Autodromo Internacional do Algarve | FP1 Results

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