Marc Marquez takes first pole of the season

Marc Marquez is definitely an exceptional, superhuman driver. Thanks to a lap from another world, and a little aspiration he admits, he will start in pole position for the two races of the weekend.

The Starting Grid for the two races of the 2023 Portuguese Grand Prix

Only two places remained available for Q2. The two official Hondas of Marc Marquez and Joan Mir were the first to take to the track, immediately followed by the Aprilia of local hero Miguel Oliveira.

From his first flying lap, Marquez beat the absolute track record set yesterday by Jack Miller, taking advantage of a great slipstream from his teammate Mir to take the lead in the ranking sheet. The Spanish champion, almost assured of qualifying, decided not to return to the track for a second attempt in order to save a set of new tires for Q2. 

Miguel Oliveira made the packed stands of the Algarve autodrome roar with joy by taking the second best time under the checkered flag to join Marc Marquez in Q2, eliminating the latter's little brother Alex Marquez in third.

Miguel Oliveira will have a great card to play on the handlebars of his Aprilia © MotoGP

After a short break, the twelve drivers set off for the ultimate hunt for pole position and Jack Miller reminded everyone of his good intentions of the weekend by signing the first significant mark in 137″549 while Aleix Espargaro left to the fault at low speed without major damage. Halfway through the session, Jorge Martin took second place ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, Luca Marini, fabio quartararo and Johann Zarco.

All the machines then lined up in the Pit Lane to attack the clock one last time. Jack Miller wanted to secure his pole position but attacked a bit too hard and fell. Francesco Bagnaia took advantage of this to set the best time in 1'37″290, beating his previous record in qualifying by almost 2 seconds! Jorge Martin then embarked on a diabolical lap to take second place. 

Marc Marquez then took Enea Bastianini's wheel like a good paddock fox and took pole position! 

Fabio Quartararo limits the damage © MotoGP

Group shot from the French Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo respectively 10th and 11th. Quartararo's somber expression in the Yamaha stand clearly illustrates the fact that he is still lacking a little in terms of performance. A little disappointing for the French, but they will have two races to score big points.

Marc Marquez: “I don’t know, I don’t understand how I did it. I admit it's not the cleanest way to do a pole because I took some wheels and I'm sorry about that. I really don't know why I'm here, it's not my place but it's great for the next two races. »

Francesco Bagnaia: “I could have done a better last lap but I was hampered by other drivers on my last attempt. It's still good. »

Jorge Martin: “I lacked a bit of grip, I could have done better but it’s a good result. »

Portuguese Grand Prix qualifying rankings MotoGP

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