A pale sun began to kiss Portimao for the second round of MotoGP on Friday, the one that designates the names of the ten riders who have direct access to Q2. After a first session which served mainly to clean the very dirty track, in the afternoon we began to understand the values on the field a little, because in the final minutes we witnessed the usual qualifying appetizer of the time attacks.
Here too, however, it must be said that not everyone managed to make the most of their potential, because in the last ten minutes several yellow flags were waved, because many riders ended up spinning in an attempt to improve. A situation which, however, prevented many colleagues from doing so.
Enea Bastianini has an open account with the Algarve track, because it is precisely here that his ordeal began in 2023, with the fracture of his scapula suffered in the first Sprint of the year. However, this year's Portuguese GP started off on the right foot for the Ducati rider, who finished with the best time in 1'38″057. A high time compared to the pole position 12 months ago, proving the fact that the track is certainly not in optimal conditions.
Despite a crash at Turn 5 in the first part of the session, he pulled a nice rabbit out of Jack Miller's hat. Between the tests and Qatar he had struggled quite a bit, but this time he took his KTM directly into Q2 with the second time just 118 thousandths behind the “Beast”. The Austrian bikes fared rather well, because Brad Binder is also in the top positions, fifth at 330 thousandths.
Once again, the Ducatis are the ones who dominate, because five of them earned direct access to Q2. In third position is Marc Marquez, who also suffered a fall at turn 5. The Gresini Racing representative finished 153 thousandths behind Bastianini, but gave the impression of being in very good shape in terms of pace, even if he has some difficulty closing the big bend that leads onto the starting straight.
Behind him is the vice-world champion Jorge Martin, fourth at 231 thousandths, but it was in sixth position that an important signal came from Marco Bezzecchi. The rider from Rimini seems to be starting to find the feeling with the GP23 of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 and seeing him in the group of the best is certainly encouraging.
However, world leader Pecco Bagnaia is further behind, as he is one of those who had to abort several laps due to yellow flags and finds himself only eighth at 484 thousandths. However, the world champion also showed a certain difficulty in stopping his Desmosedici GP24 in the slower corners such as 3 and 5.
In front of the Piedmontese is the Aprilia of Maverick Vinales who is recovering from a violent attack of gastorenteritis that struck him yesterday. His is the only RS-GP to have secured the pass for Q2, because his teammate Aleix Espargaro crashed at turn 4 and found himself only 14th. The two Trackhouse Racing bikes were then delayed.
Yamaha's Friday was also positive, as surprisingly both M1s earned direct access to Q2, with Fabio Quartararo occupying ninth position at 495 thousandths and ahead of teammate Alex Rins by just 8 thousandths. Certainly the Portuguese ups and downs are more congenial to the Iwata bike than the Lusail was, but this is undoubtedly an encouraging sign.
Pedro Acosta will have to go through Q1, who this time was beaten by just 39 thousandths with his GasGas Tech3 KTM, and among other things he will also have some good competition. Behind him there are in fact three Ducatis: those of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli, with the last two also ending up spinning at the end. Regardless of the crash, the Prima Pramac Racing rider seems to have made another good step forward in understanding his Ducati.
The Hondas are clearly in difficulty, because to find the first of the RC213Vs you have to go down to the 16th position occupied by Takaaki Nakagami. Luca Marini, who crashed at turn 8, sadly found himself closing the group, 1.7 seconds behind the best time.
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