What an absolutely dramatic end to the race! Jorge Martín won the Portuguese GP, in a last lap where Maverick Viñales crashed, and even before that Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez fell together and… with Pedro Acosta on the podium!
All set for the main race of the weekend that everyone is waiting for! Maverick Viñales was the winner of the Sprint yesterday and is one of the riders starting from the front row of the grid, alongside Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martín.
Martín had a great start and quickly moved to the front of the race, with Viñales in second and Bastianini in third. Francesco Bagnaia was fourth and Marc Márquez fifth.
Those who had a bad start were Franco Morbidelli who crashed but managed to rejoin the race. Álex Márquez also crashed at turn five but was able to get back into the race.
Miguel Oliveira also had a good start, the local hero, who was 11th after two laps, starting from 15th.
Three laps completed and Martín led by 0.334s over Viñales, Bestia was third at 0.835s. Bagnaia remained in fourth and had Márquez at 0.540s. Raúl Fernández was the first “victim” of the race to effectively leave the race, with the Trackhouse Racing Spanish rider crashing and retiring. A. Márquez and Morbidelli remained on track despite having a 26s difference over Takaaki Nakagami, 19th. Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder were having an interesting battle and the rookie didn’t hold back and attacked the South African KTM rider, even rising to sixth position and… didn’t stop there, reenacting a duel that happened in Losail, beating Marc Márquez and also setting the best lap time so far in the race.
Oliveira, meanwhile, was making his way into the top ten and now had Fabio Quartararo ahead of him, with 1.228s separating #88 from the former world champion.
Acosta continued at a frantic pace and set his sights on Bagnaia, who was 0.287s ahead, while Márquez was 0.227s behind. At the front, Martín led Viñales by 0.390s, and Bastianini by 0.928s. Bagnaia was fourth with Acosta just 0.099s behind. With 15 minutes left, the standings were as follows:
Acosta tried to attack Bagnaia but the rear of his bike wobbled, allowing #31 to stay on track, with Bagnaia immediately overtaking and reclaiming the position while Acosta struggled with his RC16. Everything was back to the original formula.
Martín continued to control the events and had increased the gap to Viñales, now at 1.102s, with the Spanish rider from Aprilia Racing having Bastianini at 0.338s.
With nine laps to go in the race, Viñales was trying to make up ground on Martín and was at 0.748s. Acosta was solid in fifth place and now had 1.029s over Marc Márquez, with Bagnaia at 0.257s. Binder and Jack Miller were in seventh and eighth respectively, with Quartararo in ninth and Oliveira in tenth. A. Márquez was the one who retired from the race, joining R. Fernández among the riders who had retired. Five laps from the end Acosta vs Bagnaia once again and the rookie attacked from the inside and finally confirmed the pass on the world champion! Further down, Oliveira lost the tenth place to Quartararo and then to Aleix Espargaró.
On the next lap, Bastianini’s lead over Viñales was getting closer, but all eyes turned to the disaster between Bagnaia and Márquez! Both riders got involved and crashed.
And the disasters didn’t stop there! What a race ending with Viñales suffering a highside, crashing to the ground, and handing Acosta the podium on a silver platter!
The race ended shortly after, with Martín taking the victory, Bastianini in second, and the prodigious Pedro Acosta on the podium!
