Portuguese GP – FP1: Alex Márquez fastest, French riders in contention

Back in Europe, Alex Márquez hasn't lost his form. After dominating the final round of the Asian tour, the Spaniard repeated his performance in Free Practice 1 for the Portuguese Grand Prix. The Gresini rider clocked a time of 1:39.145, which held off improvements from Marco Bezzecchi (1:39.341) and Jack Miller (1:39.378) at the very end of the session. He was slightly helped by the appearance of a few drops of rain on the Portimao circuit, with 12 minutes remaining in the session.

After spending almost all of FP1 in the top three, Johann Zarco finished fourth. The Frenchman, who regained confidence on his Honda in Malaysia, is making the most of his package, while Joan Mir (7th) and Luca Marini (8th) also finished in the top ten. fabio quartararo He also had an encouraging session, although this wasn't clearly reflected on the scoreboard. The Frenchman tested various things on his Yamaha and set his best laps at the very end of the session, on fairly worn medium tires. Finishing 10th, the rider from Nice seems to have plenty of room for improvement.

Bulega in front of Bagnaia

Pecco Bagnaia did not start the weekend in great form at Portimao. Struggling throughout the practice session, he completed lap after lap, but never managed to break into the top 10. At the checkered flag, the two-time world champion... MotoGP finished 17th. This is a painful result, especially since Nicolo Bulega, replacing the injured Marc Márquez for the last two rounds of the season, finished 14th. The Italian, competing in his first MotoGP Grand Prix, put in a very impressive first few laps in Portugal, beating number 63 by three-tenths of a second. It's worth noting that he was the only rider to use all the upgrades on the Desmosedici GP25, having adopted the same setup as Marc Márquez.

Raul Fernandez crashed heavily at the end of the session, at turn 1. The Spaniard was taken to the medical center for further examinations, and above all to determine if he will be fit to continue the weekend.

The MotoGP riders will return to the track around 16:00 PM in Portimao for the practice session. Portuguese Grand Prixl of MotoGP.

ALSO READ > MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix: Friday's schedule

MotoGP – Portuguese GP 

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