What a thrilling race on the roller coaster that is the Algarve International Circuit, with Maverick Viñales taking the victory, as he performed brilliantly from the start and capitalized on Pecco Bagnaia’s mistake. Marc Márquez successfully overtook Jorge Martín on the final lap to finish second.
The front row consisted of Enea Bastianini, Maverick Viñales, and Jorge Martín, with Pecco Bagnaia in fourth and ready to challenge for the top positions, while Jack Miller and Marco Bezzecchi completed the second row.
Miller had a great start and quickly moved to the front, with Bagnaia taking second place and Viñales in third. In no time, Marc Márquez climbed to fifth place, behind Bastianini. Martín was sixth, Binder seventh.
Marc Márquez moved up to fourth place and took advantage of a mistake by Bastianini, who ran wide, to close in on the top three. Miller was leading with a 0.151s gap over the current world champion.
Bagnaia was getting faster and passed the Australian, while Márquez reached the podium positions after overtaking Viñales, at the same time setting the fastest lap on the circuit. Álex Rins fell moments later, without serious injury.With nine laps to go, the fastest on track was Pedro Acosta with a lap time of 1:38.678s, the rookie was ninth and further ahead… more changes: Márquez was already in second and 0.651s separated the leader [Bagnaia] from the Spanish rider.
Viñales would eventually return the maneuver to #93 and return to second place, and then two distinct falls occurred: Binder fell, as did Fabio Di Giannantonio. Johann Zarco would also eventually abandon the race after completing five laps. Martín did not want to lose the podium positions and halfway through the race overtook Márquez, thus reaching the podium places.
And out of nowhere… a new thrill! Bagnaia almost crashed, with the rear slipping away from him but managed to avoid the fall, stay on track but went from the lead to fourth. Viñales was the new leader and Martín was dreaming of victory again. Márquez was in third.
Three laps to go in the Sprint and Viñales remained in the front, with the gap to Martín fluctuating between 0.249s and 0.120s. Márquez was 0.446s behind #89.
A small mistake from Martín on the penultimate lap gave Viñales a bit more room to pull away slightly in the lead, thus taking the lead with a 0.600s difference and the changes didn’t stop there! Márquez, on the last lap, attacked Martín from the inside and reached second place!
Shortly after, the race ended with Viñales clinching his first victory with Aprilia! Márquez was second and Martín took the final spot on the podium!
