The standings after two hours of the final day of the MotoGP collective tests in Portimao only confirm what was already intuited yesterday, namely the current overwhelming power of Ducati and Aprilia over the competition. Italian bikes monopolize the top ten positions at the stroke of 11:30 local time (12:30 in Italy), but the name at the top of the times list is probably the clearest snapshot of the current enormous potential of the Desmosedici GP.
In fact, it is led by Alex Marquez, who with his 1’38″717 set the new unofficial record on the Algarve track. We are talking about a rider who just a few months ago was on the verge of a nervous breakdown with Honda and riding the Ducati it took him a few days of testing to return to being the one who was capable of being world champion in both Moto3 and Moto2.
Although he is a bit bruised after yesterday’s crash, Aleix Espargaro also seems to have taken a decisive step forward, taking his Aprilia to second position in 1’38″850. ‘1’39” was also Raul Fernandez, third with the RNF Racing RS-GP 2022.
Completing the top 5 are the other two Ducatis of Luca Marini and Jorge Martin, who are the last to break the 1’39” mark. Above this is the other Aprilia RNF ridden by Miguel Oliveira, followed by the two official GP23s of Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini: the world champion lapped in a low 1’39” in the space of a few laps, but as he promised yesterday, his new box mate got closer, already improving by eight tenths from yesterday.
Despite a technical problem that stopped him along the track, Johann Zarco is ninth ahead of Marco Bezzecchi, while Fabio Quartararo continues to hold the palm of best of the others: the Yamaha rider has improved on yesterday, even if his 1 ’39″292 for now only 11th position is worth it. Among other things, homologation problems arose this morning for the fairing of the M1, even if aerodynamic experiments continued, especially on Franco Morbidelli’s bike.
Surprisingly, Pol Espargaro’s GasGas followed, who made a huge step forward compared to yesterday and preceded the Honda trio formed by Marc Marquez, Joan Mir and Alex Rins. The eight-time world champion, who had to deal with a technical problem that stopped his RC213V along the track, has improved, but the gap to the lead remains heavy.
Late night at KTM: Brad Binder slipped at turn 3 and is 20th at 1″8, even 22nd and for now last Jack Miller. In fact, Fabio Di Giannantonio is missing, who was declared unfit for precautionary reasons after yesterday’s bad crash at turn 7, even if the checks he underwent ruled out the presence of fractures.
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MotoGP | Portimao test, Day 2: times at 11:30 local time
Pos
the ball
Moto
Tempo
Giri
1 Alex Marquez Ducati 1’38”717 25 2 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1’38”850 12 3 Raul Fernandez Aprilia 1’38”854 23 4 Luca Marini Ducati 1’38”893 10 5 Jorge Martin Ducati 1’38”940 28 6 Miguel Oliveira Aprilia 1’39”088 23 7 Pecco Bagnaia Ducati 1’39”114 17 8 Enea Bastianini Ducati 1’39”218 18 9 Johann Zarco Ducati 1’39”237 16 10 Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 1’39”252 25 11 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1’39”292 24 12 Pol Espargaro GasGas 1’39”526 19 13 Marc Marquez Honda 1’39”552 20 14 Joan Mir Honda 1’39”636 15 15 Alex Rins Honda 1’39”901 21 16 Augusto Fernandez GasGas 1’39”907 15 17 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1’40”001 11 18 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 1’40”052 16 19 Maverick Vinales Aprilia 1’40”151 7 20 Brad Binder KTM 1’40”601 4 21 Michele Pirro Ducati 1’40”616 18 22 Jack Miller KTM 1’41”060 13
