Portuguese MotoGP: Vinales tops FP1 as Marc Marquez marks return in third

Friday’s FP1 in Portugal marked the first time in 265 days six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez started an official MotoGP session, having suffered a serious arm break in the 2020 season-opener at Jerez.

Overnight rain left the Algarve circuit damp in places, which meant lap times started at around 15 seconds slower than the benchmark laps from last year.

As conditions continued to improve, so did the session-best laps, with a number of riders taking turns leading the timesheets.

Yamaha’s Vinales took over from reigning world champion Joan Mir with 16 minutes to go with a 1m44.777s, which he improved on his following tour to a 1m44.334s.

Francesco Bagnaia moved his factory Ducati ahead of the Qatar GP race winner with a 1m44.239s moments later, before Vinales dipped under the 1m44s bracket with a 1m43.544s.

The timing screen continued to light up as the opening 45-minute session of the weekend drew to a close, the returning Marquez serving a brief stint at the top of the pile with a 1m43.544s.

The Honda rider remained fastest for all of 10 seconds, before Bagnaia blasted his effort away with a 1m42.934s.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Amidst the flurry of laps at the end of the session, Marquez looked set to steal all the headlines when he shot back to the top of the order with a 1m42.378s on his final effort.

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But faster laps for both Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Vinales denied this, the Yamaha rider setting the pace at 1m42.127s to lead Rins by 0.151s.

Marquez held onto third, 0.251s off Vinales’ pace ahead of Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro, while championship leader Johann Zarco was fifth on his Pramac Ducati.

Bagnaia was shuffled back to sixth at the end ahead of Fabio Quartararo on the sister works Yamaha and Jack Miller on second factory team Ducati – the Australian fresh from arm pump surgery last week.

Alex Marquez was ninth on the LCR Honda ahead of Tech3 KTM’s Danilo Petrucci, who revealed on Thursday he suffered a dislocated shoulder last month in Qatar.

Valentino Rossi was 11th on the Petronas SRT Yamaha, while champion Mir was 13th for Suzuki ahead of the other SRT bike of Franco Morbidelli.

Last year’s Portugal race winner Miguel Oliveira made a low-key start to his home weekend in the iffy conditions down in 17th on the factory team KTM, while team-mate Brad Binder rounded out the 22-strong field.

FP2 will get underway at 2:10pm local time.

MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix - FP1 results

Cla	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	15	1'42.127
2	Alex Rins	Suzuki	18	1'42.278	0.151
3	Marc Marquez	Honda	14	1'42.378	0.251
4	Pol Espargaro	Honda	12	1'42.382	0.255
5	Johann Zarco	Ducati	20	1'42.443	0.316
6	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	20	1'42.464	0.337
7	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	14	1'42.528	0.401
8	Jack Miller	Ducati	18	1'42.536	0.409
9	Alex Marquez	Honda	14	1'42.781	0.654
10	Danilo Petrucci	KTM	12	1'42.957	0.830
11	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	19	1'43.013	0.886
12	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	13	1'43.036	0.909
13	Joan Mir	Suzuki	15	1'43.060	0.933
14	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	21	1'43.243	1.116
15	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	17	1'43.539	1.412
16	Jorge Martin	Ducati	19	1'43.702	1.575
17	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	18	1'44.000	1.873
18	Luca Marini	Ducati	15	1'44.602	2.475
19	Iker Lecuona	KTM	20	1'44.967	2.840
20	Enea Bastianini	Ducati	14	1'45.325	3.198
21	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	10	1'45.335	3.208
22	Brad Binder	KTM	17	1'47.774	5.647
View full results