Unsurprisingly, a Ducati led into Turn 1 as Zarco led from Rins, Marquez was up to 3rd, Miller and Mir were directly behind, Binder made up 7 places in half a lap (15th to 8th), and Quartararo (One of the few riders to start with a Hard rear tyre) was happy to watch in 6th place, but his factory Yamaha teammate Vinales fell in a hole that he never escaped from, falling down to 20th! Portugal was another one of the races that started an hour earlier to dodge a clash with Formula 1, but it was nice to see the biggest two-wheeled and four-wheeled categories in world motorsport come together for another tribute to Fausto Gresini, given F1 were racing at Imola, the very same part of the world where the 2-time 125cc World Champion and team owner was born, with Fausto’s 1987 title-winning Garelli machine making an appearance trackside in Italy. However, continuing on his race-winning finish in Losail, Fabio Quartararo would start from pole position for the first time this season on the factory Yamaha, as his time of 1.38.862 bested Miguel Oliveira’s pole time from last season (1.38.892), with Alex Rins setting up Suzuki’s Sunday charge with a front row start alongside Johann Zarco, who overcome a fall in Q2 to start 3rd, with Miller, Franco Morbidelli and Marc Marquez filling out the second row, and behind them was Aleix Espargaro doing another fantastic job for Aprilia, Luca Marini started in the Top 10 for the first time, Joan Mir was 9th….īut, the cruel story of the day was that of Pecco Bagnaia, who had absolutely smashed everyone on his final lap with a record 1.38.494, almost four-tenths faster than Quartararo, but his time was struck from the record when he missed a yellow flag that was being shown for the fallen Miguel Oliveira at Turn 9, dropping him from pole all the way down to 11th.
With Dorna lapping up the return of Marquez, the 8-time World Champion didn’t let them down by finding his way into Q2 alongside Joan Mir, with the two of them being so inseparable in Q1 they may as well have been conjoined twins. Unfortunately, the Martinator had been Terminated, while Luca Marini and Pol Espargaro also had big spills during Practice, but they were both perfectly fine.
You’d feel concussed just by watching that
#Motogp 19 wheelie plus
Takaaki Nakagami fell down the hill into Turn 1 on Friday and suffered a collarbone injury, putting him out of Qualifying, although he did find a way to race on Sunday, but even scarier than that, Jorge Martin, fresh off his pole position and podium in Qatar, had a terrible accident at Turn 7 in FP3 that left him with head contusions, plus fractures to his ankle and hand, which required surgery in Barcelona with Dr Mir, but that has since been delayed due to the hit he took to the head. Undoubtedly, the highlight of this weekend was the return of Marc Marquez after 9 months of waiting, an event that could very well be the closest thing the Kingdom of Spain will have to the second coming of Christ, with Sunday’s race being held exactly 9 months to the day that The Ant of Cervera had suffered his humerus-breaking crash at Jerez, which meant there were now 3 sets of siblings on the grid Alex and Marc Marquez, the Espargaro brothers Pol and Aleix, and the half-brother combination of Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini.ĭid I mention Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini are half-brothers?īecause Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini are half-brothers.Īnyway, while Marc had finally recovered to the point of returning to racing, Jack Miller underwent arm pump surgery after Qatar II, ironically by a certain Dr Mir after his run in with Joan Mir at Losail, meaning the one known as Jackass wasn’t at 100% fitness during the race, Tech3’s Iker Lecuona was also fresh off arm pump surgery, Danilo Petrucci had dislocated his shoulder during a crash in Losail, then the casualties mounted up during Friday and Saturday practice. Journey Of The Jackass 2021, Chapter 3: It’s a fine line between gravel and painĪfter two weeks off since the opening two rounds of the season, the World Championship returned to the Algarve region of Portugal and the Portimao Circuit, a track which had proved to be the sleeper hit of 2020 when it hosted the final round of the season, a race in which local hero Miguel Oliveira won comfortably from pole position, ahead of a great scrap between Jack Miller and Franco Morbidelli that wasn’t decided until the final sector of the race.
They don’t call it The Rollercoaster for nothing