MotoGP Portimao FP2: Pecco Bagnaia breaks 1:39

April 16, 2021April 17, 2021 EMR Writer

Francesco Bagnaia sets the marker in MotoGP breaking into the 1:39’s.

‘Pecco’ Bagnaia sets the pace in MotoGP after becoming the first rider into the 1:39 lap times this year annihilating the field by a massive 0.340 seconds to Fabio Quartararo in second place, the Ducati man smells victory in Portugal and this lap time is proving he has the pace to take it all the way, he leads Doha winner Fabio Quartararo who is another rider chasing victory.

In a welcome turn of events we saw Suzuki take the P3 and P4 spaces after becoming accustomed to seeing them further down the order outside of the top 10 during the free practice sessions, they have lost out of good qualifying positions far too many times so this could be the start of the tides turning, the duo lead Jack Miller in P5 who once again made a quick buck on the side from his taxi service giving Johann Zarco a lift at the end of the session in true Jack Miller style.

Marc Marquez really has not changed has he? He finished the session in P6 and showed his erratic, crazy riding style drifting his Honda RC213V around the circuit as we have come to expect over the years, looking like he’s about to crash but fully in control, it is beautiful to watch. The returnee has gotten himself a provisional Q2 spot in P6 and will be looking to maximise on this and qualify as high up as he can tomorrow.

Maverick Vinales was the sixth-fastest rider ahead of Johann Zarco who is the current championship leader, the duo lead home hero Miguel Oliveira who looks to have been practising his race pace using a hard tyre throughout the session. Rounding off the top 10 was Takaaki Nakagami who deserves a massive shout out after his awful 200mph crash on his first lap, he was able to return to the pits in a new suit and hobble to his bike to take P10, outstanding.

Further down we saw Pol Espargaro in P12, a little embarrassing to see him in there given that his teammate on the same machinery is in P6, is that embarrassing? I’d say it is but you never know. The Petronas SRT squad are having a headache with Rossi in P15 and Morbidelli in P19.

Jorge Martin who finished on the podium in the Doha GP was last.

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