MotoGP

All you need to know about second MotoGP Portimao practice

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
3 min read

Pol Espargaro completed a Honda clean sweep of Friday MotoGP practice at Portimao in what was a second wet session.

Key moments:

  • Three Ducati crashes
  • Honda bags 1-2
  • Rain could mean all-star Q1 line-up

The track conditions gradually got worse thanks to rainfall over the course of the 45-minute session, meaning riders only really had a window to improve on their FP1 times in the opening minutes.

Espargaro made the best use of that window, his 1m50.707s cementing him as the FP2 pacesetter and placing him a close second behind Honda factory team-mate Marc Marquez in the day’s combined classification.

Marquez also made it a Honda 1-2 in the session itself, six tenths down on Espargaro and four tenths up on the third-fastest rider – Andrea Dovizioso from RNF Yamaha.

Fourth-fastest Francesco Bagnaia was one of the three riders to crash during the session, folding the front of his Ducati Desmosedici GP22 at Turn 3 and tumbling through the gravel.

Upon getting up, he took a handful of rocks from the gravel trap with himself, which Ducati manager Davide Tardozzi said was aimed at raising the issue of the gravel at Portimao causing too much pain for riders.

But Bagnaia’s fall was not the most painful in the session – this dubious distinction belonged to fellow Valentino Rossi protege Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati).

The Italian rookie was thrown off his 2021-spec Desmosedici in a rear highside through the high-speed Turn 9 and needed a bit of time to get back up on his feet – but was in the end seemingly largely unhurt, and returned to the track later in the session.

The third crash of FP2 was also a Ducati one, with Pramac’s Johann Zarco falling at Turn 2 in the closing minutes.

After a full day of wet-weather running on Friday, qualifying day at Portimao is expected to be hit with intermittent rain – meaning that the Friday classification could yet effectively decide who goes directly to Q2.

Therefore, a sufficiently wet FP3 would lave the likes of Brad Binder (KTM), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), Alex Rins (Suzuki) and championship leader Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) among those having to fight it out for the two transfer spots in the first qualifying segment.

Practice 2 Results

Pos Name Team Bike Gap Next Gap Leader Best Time
1 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m50.707s
2 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.611s +0.611s 1m51.318s
3 Andrea Dovizioso WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha +0.438s +1.049s 1m51.756s
4 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati +0.033s +1.082s 1m51.789s
5 Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati +0.005s +1.087s 1m51.794s
6 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda +0.08s +1.167s 1m51.874s
7 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +0.037s +1.204s 1m51.911s
8 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia +0.014s +1.218s 1m51.925s
9 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda +0.121s +1.339s 1m52.046s
10 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.054s +1.393s 1m52.1s
11 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki +0.206s +1.599s 1m52.306s
12 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati +0.014s +1.613s 1m52.32s
13 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +0.214s +1.827s 1m52.534s
14 Enea Bastianini Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati +0.048s +1.875s 1m52.582s
15 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.383s +2.258s 1m52.965s
16 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati +0.038s +2.296s 1m53.003s
17 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati +0.1s +2.396s 1m53.103s
18 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia +0.199s +2.595s 1m53.302s
19 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +0.225s +2.82s 1m53.527s
20 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki +0.8s +3.62s 1m54.327s
21 Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha +0.058s +3.678s 1m54.385s
22 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia Racing Aprilia +0.491s +4.169s 1m54.876s
23 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati +0.695s +4.864s 1m55.571s
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