Yamaha ‘s French pilot, Fabio Quartararo has taken his second consecutive win of the season after DohaGP at the Portuguese MotoGP and third round in the season ‘s calendar, becoming the new leader of the standings.

Behind the Frenchman came the Italian from Ducati’s official team, Pecco Bagnaia, second in the standings, 15 points behind El Diablo. Suzuki’s Spaniard Joan Mir has completed the podium.

Marc Márquez also put out a great performance on his return to the competition. The Spaniard from Honda has taken a seventh place nine months after his accident and despite his physical problems.

 

Johann Zarco took the lead ahead of Alex Rins on exit at the Portuguese MotoGP. His teammate at Suzuki, Joan Mir, was third by the first lap. Fabio Quartararo, on the other hand, was off to a poor start as he dropped from first to fourth place.

Yamaha’s obvious underperformance at the start of races is worrying. Three laps on and Zarco was leading the race ahead of the blue bikes of Rins and Mir.

Behind them came Quartararo, Miller (Ducati) and Pol Espargaro (Honda) with Marc in seventh place. Zarco’s Ducati was unsuccessfully trying to make a run for it. Hot on his heels were Rins and Fabio, with Mir slightly behind.

Soon after, Rins passed Zarco for the lead but only a few meters on and the Frenchman took is position back from the Spaniard. Just four laps into the race and Pol Espargaro had to retire following some mechanical issues with his Honda.

The fight for the lead was very close indeed. Slowly, Rins managed to open a small gap (0,446 seconds) followed by Quartararo, Mir and Zarco. After six laps the six leading pilots were opening ground with the rest. Rins and Quartararo, for their part, got a few meters ahead of Zarco and Mir.

Back at the lead and Quartararo made a pass on Rins to take the lead of the Portuguese GP. His strong rhythm accrued him 0,413 seconds over Rins.

Meanwhile, the #42 was struggling to keep on Quartararo’s wake. By then, Marc Márquez had fallen to the ninth position, precisely while chasing his brother Alex.

At the same time, another great battle was taking place for third place between Rins and Zarco. The two rivals were alternating positions constantly very much to the delight of fans. Behind them came Mir, Zarco and a little bit further down, Morbidelli.

Quartararo and Rins finally escaped after slightly increasing their pace over Mir but the Frenchman wanted to travel solo and was fighting to get rid of #42.

The latter was hanging on as best as he could to the relentless rhythm of #20. Rins had a fast lap in an attempt to stop Fabio breaking away. Meanwhile, without too much noise, Bagnaia took the fifth place from eleventh after passing Morbidelli.

With his main rival out of action, the Frenchman speeded off to victory and to the leadership of the championship. Meanwhile, Pecco fended Mir off to finish second ahead of the Spaniard who was third.

Images of Portuguese MotoGP: Yamaha MotoGP.