Maverick Viñales finally had his day of glory with Aprilia. The rider from Roses, still recovering from an outbreak of gastroenteritis, won the Sprint race of the Portuguese GP ahead of Marc Márquez (Ducati Gresini) and Jorge Martín (Ducati Pramac).
The Aprilia rider, who started second after a very good qualifying session dominated by Enea Bastianini, took advantage of a mistake by Pecco Bagnaia, who lost the victory with three laps to go by going wide off the track when he was a second ahead.
“I’m happy to be back, to show that I’m finding the way,” commented Maverick Viñales, who opted for Aprilia three years ago leaving Yamaha.
The start blew up the most predictable script of the Portuguese Sprint. Bastianini was swallowed up at the start, Jorge Martín and Jack Miller passed him like airplanes, who took the lead before the second corner. Viñales did not do badly and remained third, while behind Marc Márquez, aggressive, jumped from eighth to fourth, after overtaking Bastianini.
Márquez was on fire. The man from Cervera overtook Viñales on the second lap to go after Miller and Bagnaia, who was already leading from fourth after overtaking the Australian in turn 15.
The one from Cervera attacked Miller and conquered second position in the third lap. He had Bagnaia just 4 tenths behind. Viñales, plugged in, did not want the two Ducatis to get away from him and also surpassed Miller to place himself on the provisional podium.
Nor did the man of Saturdays, Jorge Martín, want to miss the train, who rose to fourth place by overtaking Bastianini and Miller. Aleix Espargaró suffered the aggressiveness of Pedro Acosta, who climbed to seventh place.
Márquez’s attack on Pecco did not arrive. The Catalan slipped by going wide on lap 5 and gave up second position to Viñales, who became Bagnaia’s pursuer. With seven laps to go, the Italian was 8 tenths ahead of him. Márquez, for his part, would have to defend the podium from the harassment of a Martín who could not afford to give up many points to the leader Bagnaia.
On the sixth lap, Martín overtook Márquez in a left turn to take third place. A maneuver in which the Madrid native did not hold anything back, evidencing the rivalry with the Catalan, who knocked him out last year in the race in Portugal.
When the race seemed to be decided in favor of Bagnaia, the intractable Italian made an unexpected mistake. He went off under braking in Turn 1, with three laps remaining (v. 9/12) and gave up the first position to Viñales, who was heading towards victory, pursued by Martín and Márquez. Bagnaia fell back to fourth position.
The victory would be decided in the last two laps between Viñales’ Aprilia and Martín’s Ducati, close together, and with Márquez lurking just 3 tenths behind the Madrid rider. The man from Cervera put his Ducati into the Madrid driver and they entered the last lap with 6 tenths of a lead over Viñales.
Márquez had it in for him, as he collided with Martín’s Ducati and took second place from him, leaving him 4 tenths behind. “I made a mistake in qualifying, the team did a good job repairing the bike, and I was lucky to get a good start. In the last laps I was able to attack,” commented Márquez, who improves his third place in the Sprint of the year spent in Portimao.
Jorge Martín admitted an error at the start, when starting with the speed device activated. “I have had a thousand vibration problems, without them I could have attacked Maverick,” commented the Madrid native. “On a bad day to get a podium, I sign it,” commented the Pramac Ducati rider. “They are little points, let’s keep adding.”
Viñales did not let up at the front of the race and won his first victory with Aprilia. The rider from Roses, who had suffered from gastroenteritis since he arrived in Portugal, had not won a race since 2021 with Yamaha. “I will try in every grand prix, I come away motivated with this victory,” said Viñales, who this Sunday aspires to be the first rider of the MotoGP era to win in a long race with a third different motorcycle, after doing so with Suzuki and Yamaha. .
