Quartararo wins in Portimão ahead of Zarco

From second position on the grid, Joan Mir made a great start to take the lead upon first braking. The Suzuki rider then pulled out all the stops to complete the first lap half a second ahead of fabio quartararo, also the author of a good start.

Jack Miller then occupied third place with the status of first Ducati in the hierarchy ahead of Johann Zarco. The Frenchman was followed by Alex Marquez, best Honda representative, and Aleix Espargaro.

Seeing his compatriot escape to return in the wake of Mir, Zarco quickly gained the upper hand over Miller to try to close the gap which was then a little less than a second at the start of the third lap.

It was at the end of the straight of the fourth lap that Quartarar took the advantage over Mir and set a pace that the Spaniard was unable to follow. In just one lap, the world champion had a lead of more than seven tenths over his rival Suzuki, who then found himself under threat from Zarco who was determined not to let victory slip away.

Behind Zarco, the fight raged between Miller and A. Marquez for fourth place. The two opponents were then closely followed by A. Espargaro, Miguel Oliveira and Alex Rins, who started from 23rd place on the grid.

It will only take a few loops for A. Espargaro and Rins to get rid of the youngest of the Marquez brothers and try to pursue Miller. A little further ahead, the skirmish between Mir and Zarco benefited Quartararo who was able to take off and increase his lead to 6s, but also Miller who was able to make the connection and join in the fight for the other two steps on the podium.

It was only with nine laps remaining that Zarco finally managed to gain the upper hand over Mir. Two laps later, while trying to overtake the Spaniard during the first braking, Miller lost the front, hitting Mir. The two pilots then went to the mat.

When times are tough, the tough gets going! 👊@FabioQ20 finally gets his first win of 2022! 🥇#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/L4hR2GjX5N

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 24, 2022

A. Espargaro thus inherited third place ahead of Rins who is doing well in the championship. The Spaniard leaves Portugal with the same number of points as Quartararo who leads the ranking thanks to this victory.

On his home turf, Oliveira finished the exercise in fifth position ahead of Marc and Alex Marquez. Francesco Bagnaia, who started last on the grid, took eighth place ahead of Pol Espargaro and the second Aprilia, that of Mavercik Viñales.

Among the other losers of the day, we can cite Enea Bastianini, winner in Qatar and Austin, who made a mistake and who fell to fourth place overall at eight points.

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