MotoGP Portimao, Portugal – Full Qualifying Results

* Rookie

Official Portimao MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 1m 38.725s (2015)
Fastest race lap:
Alex Rins SPA Suzuki 1m 39.450s (2021)

Fastest practice time:
Miguel Oliveira POR KTM 1m 50.552s (wet)

Johann Zarco seals pole position from Joan Mir and Aleix Espargaro during a frantic qualifying for the 2022 Portimao MotoGP.

After a dramatic Q1, the first session of the weekend to see slick tyres, the Q2 participants knew they needed to brave the damp patches on dry rubber to have any chance of pole position.

Birthday boy Alex Marquez used his Q1 knowledge to take early control, the LCR Honda rider then responding when Mir briefly moved ahead in the middle stages.

Marc Marquez then made it a family one-two, before Mir split the Hondas.

With track conditions improving by the minute, Zarco was next to feature on top, with countryman Fabio Quartararo slotting into second.

The pole changes continued with Mir, Zarco and Miller rotating into P1. Miller looked set to be deprived by both Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, but an accident for Pol Espargaro in the final sector saw both Marquez and Quartararo stripped of their best laps.

But Miller still wasn’t safe. 

Mir and then Zarco saved their best for last to leapfrog ahead of the Ducati, the Suzuki rider sealing his best MotoGP qualifying. Meanwhile, Aprilia’s Espargaro nudged Miller down to the second row, where he will be joined by reigning champion Quartararo and VR46 rookie Marco Bezzecchi.

Marc Marquez paid a higher price for losing his best lap and will start just ninth, just ahead of team-mate Espargaro, with the KTMs of local star and practice leader Miguel Oliveira plus team-mate Brad Binder eleventh and twelfth.

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Reigning title runner-up Francesco Bagnaia spent Q2 undergoing medical checks after landing heavily on his right shoulder during a nasty highside on his first slick laps of the weekend. in Qualifying 1.

If passed fit, the Ducati star will need to start Sunday’s race from 25th and last.

Other big names failing to reach Q2 were Suzuki’s Alex Rins (23rd) and world championship leader Enea Bastianini, the Gresini Ducati rider being left 18th after also suffering a hard fall in Q1.

After four overseas events, the European leg of the 2022 MotoGP season begins at Portimao this weekend with Gresini’s Enea Bastianini leading the world championship standings by five points over Suzuki’s Alex Rins, after victories in two of the opening rounds.

Aleix Espargaro is 11 points from the top for Aprilia, with Rins’ team-mate Joan Mir, Yamaha’s reigning MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo and KTM’s Brad Binder completing the early top six.

2020 champion Mir, Ducati’s reigning title runner-up Francesco Bagnaia and Repsol Honda’s six-time premier-class champion Marc Marquez (who has missed two races due to diplopia) are among those still seeking a first podium of the season.

The previous Portimao MotoGP rounds, all held since November 2020, have been won by home star Miguel Oliveira (KTM), Quartararo and Bagnaia respectively.
 

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Portimao MotoGP schedule (UK time)

Friday April 22

9am-9.45am – Moto3 Free Practice 1

9.55am-10.40am – MotoGP Free Practice 1

10.55am-11.35am – Moto2 Free Practice 1

1.15pm-1.55pm – Moto3 Free Practice 2

2.10pm-2.55pm – MotoGP Free Practice 2

3.10pm-3.50pm – Moto2 Free Practice 2

 

Saturday April 23

9am-9.40am – Moto3 Free Practice 3

9.55am-10.40am– MotoGP Free Practice 3

10.55am-11.35am – Moto2 Free Practice 3

12.35pm-.12.50pm – Moto3 Qualifying 1

1pm-1.15pm – Moto3 Qualifying 3

1.30pm-2pm – MotoGP Free Practice 4

2.10pm-2.25pm – MotoGP Qualifying 1

3.10pm-3.25pm – Moto2 Qualifying 1

3.35pm-3.50pm – Moto2 Qualifying 2

 

Sunday April 24

9.20am-9.30am – Moto3 warm-up

9.40am-10am – MotoGP warm-up

10.10am-10.20am – Moto2 warm-up

11.20am – Moto3 race

1pm – MotoGP race

2.30pm – Moto2 race