MotoGP Portuguese GP: Alex Marquez shakes off Pedro…

Alex Marquez won a thrilling duel with Pedro Acosta to clinch the sprint race at the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Gresini Ducati rider recovered from qualifying fifth to take the win and deny front-row starter Acosta a breakthrough victory in MotoGP.

Polesitter Marco Bezzecchi was able to claim an early lead in what was a clean start to the 12-lap race, with Acosta slotting in behind the Aprilia. Marquez was already third at the first corner after a strong getaway, with Fabio Quartararo in fourth.

While Quartararo and the rest of the field dropped out of victory contention, the leading trio settled down to produce a rollicking race for the spectators at the panoramic Algarve venue.

First, Acosta moved past Bezzecchi to take the lead on the front straight as lap three began. Marquez had to wait another lap before replicating that pass on the Italian.

One lap later, Marquez made his first move on Acosta – but it would take three long and fascinating laps of the circuit before he could take a lead that would ultimately stick on lap nine.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images)

Marquez then enjoyed a couple of laps of relative comfort before a late surge by Acosta on the last tour. Visibly struggling, Marquez was only just able to keep the GP24 ahead of the factory KTM over the final few corners.

Bezzecchi was never far behind all of this, and could easily have benefited from any incident between Marquez and Acosta. In the end, however, he would have to settle for third, crossing the line just over half a second shy of the winner.

Yamaha’s Quartararo rode a lonely race to fourth, with Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) working his way through to fifth by the end.

Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) looked to have sixth and seventh under control into the closing stages, but Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer had other ideas and got ahead of both of them during an anarchic final lap in the midfield. The Spaniard beat them to the finish line by only a fraction.

Brad Binder grabbed the last point for the factory KTM team, while Marc Marquez’s factory Ducati substitute, Nicolo Bulega, fell early in the race.

MotoGP Portuguese GP - Sprint race results

SPRINT

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	12	19'50.075			12
2	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	12	+0.120 19'50.195	0.120		9
3	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	12	+0.637 19'50.712	0.517		7
4	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	12	+5.276 19'55.351	4.639		6
5	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	12	+6.088 19'56.163	0.812		5
6	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	12	+8.864 19'58.939	2.776		4
7	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	12	+8.886 19'58.961	0.022		3
8	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	12	+8.898 19'58.973	0.012		2
9	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	12	+9.052 19'59.127	0.154		1
10	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	12	+10.121 20'00.196	1.069
11	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	12	+10.290 20'00.365	0.169
12	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	12	+12.016 20'02.091	1.726
13	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	12	+13.469 20'03.544	1.453
14	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	12	+13.900 20'03.975	0.431
15	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	12	+14.520 20'04.595	0.620
16	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	12	+15.289 20'05.364	0.769
17	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	12	+22.861 20'12.936	7.572
18	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	12	+25.456 20'15.531	2.595
dnf	N. Bulega Ducati Team	11	Ducati	3	+9 Laps 6'15.041	9 Laps	Accident
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	3	+9 Laps 5'34.012		Retirement
dnf	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	2	+10 Laps 3'46.615	1 Lap	Retirement
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