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Autosport

Sport

MotoGP Portuguese GP: Martin wins as Bagnaia and Marquez collide, Acosta third

Ducati Francesco Bagnaia Gresini Marquez Aprilia Honda KTM Enea Bastianini Vinales (Person) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Yamaha

Martin grabbed the holeshot off the line from third on the grid and led all 25 laps to secure his first grand prix victory of the season.

Behind Martin, drama unfolded as Ducati’s Enea Bastianini took second from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales in a bizarre incident on the final lap.

Vinales slowed on the pit straight and allowed Bastianini to come through, before the sprint race winner ran off at Turn 1 and crashed on the dusty run-off area.

This released Pedro Acosta into third, after the Tech3 GasGas rookie battled through from seventh on the grid to secure his first MotoGP podium in just his second grand prix.

A lap prior to this moment, Marquez and Bagnaia collided at Turn 5 as the former attempted a move for fifth.

Gresini’s Marquez launched himself down the inside of Bagnaia into the Turn 5 right-hander, but ran slightly wide as he did so.

Cutting back to try to defend the line, the pair collided. Both were able to remount, but Bagnaia retired into the pits while Marquez finished 16th.

The incident will be reviewed by the stewards after the race.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Pramac’s Martin, Vinales and Bastianini quickly emerged as the breakaway group in the grand prix as Bagnaia slotted into fourth on the opening lap.

Marquez, from eighth on the grid, came close to tagging Bagnaia at Turn 5 on the opening lap as they battled with KTM’s Jack Miller.

Both Bagnaia and Marquez were able to jump Miller, who eventually fell into the clutches of KTM team-mate Brad Binder and Tech3’s Acosta.

Acosta advanced to sixth ahead of Binder on lap seven of 25, before taking fifth from Marquez next time around.

The rookie then shadowed Bagnaia, whose pace couldn’t match the leaders, until lap 21 when he made a successful pass for fourth after several prior attempts.

Marquez, who looked like he’d dropped out of the battle for fourth in the closing stages, then rallied after Acosta moved ahead of Bagnaia and came close on lap 21 to overhauling the factory Ducati.

On lap 23, Marquez made another attempt on Bagnaia before it ended in disaster, promoting the factory KTM duo of Binder and Miller into the top five.

At the front of the field, Martin extended his lead to over a second at the halfway mark and kept it stable, despite late fastest lap efforts from Vinales and Bastianini.

As Martin began his final lap, Bastianini eased past Vinales as the Aprilia suddenly slowed onto the pit straight. Bastianini was already well ahead when Vinales's incident promoted Acosta to third.

Aprilia says Vinales’ bike suffered a suspected gearbox issue, which caused him to slow onto the final lap before ultimately crashing.

Martin took the chequered flag 0.882s clear of Bastianini, with Acosta 4.480s behind in third.

Binder was five seconds clear of Miller at the finish, with Marco Bezzecchi sixth on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Home hero Miguel Oliveira was ninth on the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia, with Fabio Di Giannantonio 10th on the sister VR46 bike.

Augusto Fernandez was 11th on the sister Tech3 GasGas, with Honda’s Joan Mir, Yamaha’s Alex Rins, Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Johann Zarco (LCR) taking the final points.

Alex Marquez (Gresini) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) crashed out early on, while Franco Morbidelli (Pramac) was 18th after suffering a fall on lap one.

Martin now leads the championship by 18 points from Binder, with Bagnaia 23 adrift after his DNF.

MotoGP Portuguese GP - Race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	25	-				25
2	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	25	+0.882 0.882	0.882			20
3	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	25	+5.362 5.362	4.480			16
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	25	+11.129 11.129	5.767			13
5	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	25	+16.437 16.437	5.308			11
6	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	25	+19.403 19.403	2.966			10
7	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	25	+20.130 20.130	0.727			9
8	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	25	+21.549 21.549	1.419			8
9	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	25	+23.929 23.929	2.380			7
10	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	25	+28.195 28.195	4.266			6
11	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	25	+28.244 28.244	0.049			5
12	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	25	+29.271 29.271	1.027			4
13	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	25	+31.334 31.334	2.063			3
14	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	25	+34.932 34.932	3.598			2
15	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	25	+38.267 38.267	3.335			1
16	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	25	+40.174 40.174	1.907
17	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	25	+40.775 40.775	0.601
18	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	25	+52.362 52.362	11.587
dnf	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	24				Retirement
dnf	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	23				Retirement
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	17				Retirement
dnf	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	3				Retirement
View full results