Race report

MotoGP Portuguese GP: Bezzecchi powers to Portimao victory

The Aprilia man took a step closer to third in the world championship with a lights-to-flag win in Portugal

Marco Bezzecchi dominated the Portuguese Grand Prix for Aprilia on Sunday, leading throughout the race at Portimao.

The Italian tightened his grip on third in the world championship as he led home Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Pedro Acosta (KTM).

With nearest challenger Francesco Bagnaia falling, Bezzecchi stretched his advantage in third place to 35 points. That leaves Bagnaia with a miracle to perform in the Valencia finale if he wants to finish the year better than fourth – and officially puts Acosta out of the running for a championship top three.

Bezzecchi took a comfortable lead into the first corner of the race, with Acosta and Marquez slotting in behind the RS-GP25.

Acosta was unable to make life as difficult for Marquez as he had in the Saturday sprint, and had no reply to his countryman when the blue Ducati powered past at the beginning of lap two.

Directly behind them, Bagnaia pulled off a similar move on Fabio Quartararo, who would spend the rest of the afternoon in defensive mode.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Saturday’s fireworks among the top three were nowhere to be seen in the grand prix, as gaps gradually developed between Bezzecchi, Marquez and Acosta. At one-third distance, Acosta’s lap times began to drop away, with Marquez’s pace also dropping as half-distance approached. That’s when Bezzecchi began to get quicker, truly breaking the back of the race and setting himself up with a cushion to manage his tyres over the final third.

This all made for a static race as far as the podium positions were concerned – despite a brief flurry from Acosta late in the race getting him back within a second of Marquez at the flag.

Fourth place also looked sewn up as half-distance drew nearer until Bagnaia lost control of his factory Ducati on lap 11. Following his puncture last time out in Malaysia, yet another Sunday DNF was added to his late-season collection.

That gifted fourth to Fermin Aldeguer, who, like Brad Binder behind him, had had to work hard to get past Quartararo during the middle third of the race.

Quartararo did well to hold sixth place on the recalcitrant Yamaha. He would have had another Frenchman behind him at the flag had not Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) faded rapidly late in the race, allowing Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) to relegate him to ninth.

Pol Espargaro rounded out the top 10 for Tech3 KTM, while Miguel Oliveira picked up two points for 14th in what could be the last home race for the Portuguese Pramac Yamaha rider. Nicolo Bulega took the last point on offer in what was a solid MotoGP debut for the factory Ducati squad, where he is replacing the injured Marc Marquez.

MotoGP Portuguese GP - Race results

RACE

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	25	41'13.616			25
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	25	+2.583 41'16.199	2.583		20
3	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	25	+3.188 41'16.804	0.605		16
4	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	25	+12.860 41'26.476	9.672		13
5	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	25	+16.327 41'29.943	3.467		11
6	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	25	+18.442 41'32.058	2.115		10
7	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	25	+19.255 41'32.871	0.813		9
8	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	25	+20.612 41'34.228	1.357		8
9	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	25	+21.040 41'34.656	0.428		7
10	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	25	+26.517 41'40.133	5.477		6
11	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	25	+28.226 41'41.842	1.709		5
12	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	25	+29.717 41'43.333	1.491		4
13	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	25	+30.372 41'43.988	0.655		3
14	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	25	+31.621 41'45.237	1.249		2
15	N. Bulega Ducati Team	11	Ducati	25	+32.072 41'45.688	0.451		1
16	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	25	+39.869 41'53.485	7.797
17	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	25	+1'01.999 42'15.615	22.130
18	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	23	+2 Laps 41'27.430	2 Laps
dnf	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	10	+15 Laps 17'25.293	13 Laps	Accident
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	2	+23 Laps 4'00.747	8 Laps	Retirement
dnf	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	0	+25 Laps 23.766	2 Laps	Retirement
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