A great fight between the Ducatis was expected, but instead it was Maverick Vinales and Aprilia who were celebrating in the Sprint of the Portuguese Grand Prix. For the Noale manufacturer this is the second success in a short race on Saturday, but above all it is the first triumph for the driver from Roses with the Italian brand. It's true that it's not a real Grand Prix, but today he thus became the first in the MotoGP era to have led the bikes of three different brands to success, given that he had already done so previously with Suzuki and Yamaha. In some ways, therefore, we can speak of a historic result.
To be honest, it must be said that in a certain sense the success was served on a silver platter by Pecco Bagnaia: the reigning world champion had started the attack from the second row and in the space of a couple of of laps he had managed to take the lead, copying the strategy he had used for his victory in Qatar. The Ducati rider had managed to open a gap of about a second, which he seemed to be able to manage rather calmly, but with four laps to go he ended up very long at turn 1, falling back to fourth place and thus handing over the leadership to Vinales.
At this point the Spaniard had to deal with Jorge Martin, who however this time did not show himself in his usual explosive version on Saturdays. In fact, with a couple of laps to go, it seemed quite clear that “Martinator” didn't have it in him to try to counter Maverick, who therefore took off towards a deserved success, in spite of the gastroenteritis that has been persecuting him for a few days.
Martin, on the other hand, started to watch his back since the return of Marc Marquez, who was even second at the start, but then lost ground with a long shot at turn 5. On the last lap, however, he was very determined and found the gap at the same point just to overtake Prima Pramac Racing's rival, thus giving himself his first podium aboard the Ducati, which is also his first with Gresini Racing.
After the mistake, Bagnaia lost pace and in the end had to defend himself from Jack Miller's KTM, with whom he had already battled in the very early stages of the race and who this time managed to contain the drop that he accustomed us to in the second part of competition. Fourth place, however, keeps Pecco at the top of the world championship standings with a 2-point margin over Martin and 8 over Brad Binder, who suffered a crash today that eliminated him prematurely. Also watch out for Marquez, who is 2 points behind.
Enea Bastianini's Sprint didn't go as he would have hoped either, as he started uphill straight away because he wasn't able to engage the front lowering device at the start. The Ducati rider then found himself swallowed up by the group and in the end had to settle for a sixth place finish, without ever managing to keep up with the pace of the best.
Still in the points is the rookie Pedro Acosta, who confirmed the seventh place he occupied on the grid with his GasGas Tech3, while the comeback of the other Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro was not bad at all, climbing from 13th place on the grid to eighth under the checkered flag. The last little point was then taken home by Fabio Quartararo, for which he seems to have paid for the choice of fitting the medium tire on his Yamaha unlike all the others who had the soft.
Marco Bezzecchi's race was negative, as he didn't go beyond 11th place after starting from the second row. 16th place then for Franco Morbidelli, while Luca Marini finished 18th. The best of the Hondas, however, was that of his teammate Joan Mir, who however only placed 14th. Finally, Fabio Di Giannantonio was forced to retire, having ended up spinning like Johann Zarco, Alex Rins and the aforementioned Binder.
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