The Lord of Saturdays is also the Lord of Sundays. Jorge Martín took the Sunday victory of the Portuguese GP, dominating from the start until the checkered flag waved by José Mourinho, and took advantage of the errors and falls of his main rivals to take over the MotoGP leadership for the first time on Sunday. The Madrid native launches his candidacy for the title with a good hit on the table.
Although the prominence of Portugal’s Sunday has to be shared by Martín with the enormous Pedro Acosta. The MotoGP rookie showed that he has arrived in the class of the oldest to mess it up: he easily devoured the two biggest riders, the champion Bagnaia and the multiple champion Márquez, who ended up on the ground, and got on the podium thanks to the unexpected last minute fall of Viñales.
Unlike in the short race on Saturday, this time at the start it was Jorge Martín who was the most explosive starting out. The Madrid native, third in the Sprint, conquered the first angle and began to pull very hard. He was followed by Viñales, Saturday’s winner, the two red Ducatis of Bastianini and Bagnaia, and Marc Márquez who jumped from 8th to 5th place. The man from Cervera tried to overcome the champion, but could not beat the Italian inside.
Behind, Pedro Acosta had an intense duel with Brad Binder, who gained 7th position on the third lap in a beautiful fight between two KTMs. Àlex Márquez, very behind, fell in the early stages.
The best show of the race was going to be offered by the Murcian rookie. After overtaking his KTM neighbor Binder, he moved up behind Marquez. He soon had it in his sights. The past versus the future. The Shark does not deceive, as soon as he smells blood he jumps. And he went for Marc under braking in Turn 1, at the end of the long straight. He braked his KTM later and took down the multiple champion from Cervera. A spectacular maneuver, pure magic and nerve, to conquer fifth position on lap 8/25. To make matters worse, Acosta set the best lap of the race, the youngest in history.
Ahead, his next objective was the champion, Pecco Bagnaia, with a faster bike. But the Murcian was not discouraged. He weighed the distances and the Italian’s pace, and he went for it. On lap 12 he took the first bite. The Ducati rider fought back and held on to fourth position.
At the front of the race, Martín already had an 8 tenths lead over Viñales by lap 15/25. Bastianini was third, distanced from his teammate Bagnaia and Acosta and Márquez, who formed the second group. Behind, Binder and Miller, 7th and 8th.
The Acosta show still had its best dish in store: overtaking the champion. On lap 21/25, the Murcian took advantage of Bagnaia’s mistake as he went wide in a slow corner. El Tiburón did not hesitate and slipped inside to take fourth position. The Murcian, with a superior pace, soon put a second and a half ahead of the Italian, in just one lap.
Then, with two laps remaining, Marc Márquez and Bagnaia met for fifth place. The man from Cervera launched his attack in turn 5, where on Saturday he had overtaken Martín, but this time he went long under braking. When trying to recover the inside, Bagnaia arrived from behind and had already occupied the line, so the side collision between the two motorcycles was inevitable. They both went to the ground.
The last surprise was reserved for Maverick Viñales, who was harassed by Bastianini. The man from Roses was heading towards the finish line with second position when when braking for Turn 1 he crashed due to a mechanical failure on his Aprilia. Goodbye to the podium, which passed into the hands of Pedro Acosta.
A gift that made the Murcian the third youngest driver in history to take the box in the queen displacement. At 19 years and 304 days old, the one from Mazarrón is only behind Randy Mamola (1979) and Eduardo Salatino (1962). But the cheeky Shark had already made history by devouring the two great MotoGP champions, Bagnaia and Márquez.
