2023 Portimão MotoGP Practice 2 Results: Miller Smashes Record In Session Disrupted By Red Flags

By David Emmett | Fri, 24/03/2023 - 17:08

The first hour-long session of timed practice for the MotoGP class got off to a halting start. The session was red flagged after a power cut in Race Direction meant that they couldn't run the session. Practice resumed for half an hour, until Pol Espargaro had a massive crash at Turn 10, being flicked off his bike and then pushed to the barrier by it, hitting the barrier on his own. As horrific as the crash looked, he was reported to be conscious and was transported to a local hospital for further examination and treatment.

The session resumed with a mad dash for times, Pecco Bagnaia getting a tenth under his best time at the test, and eight tenths under the existing lap record. He was deposed first by Maverick Viñales on the Aprilia, and then by an astonishing lap by Jack Miller. The Australian followed Enea Bastianini round the Portimão circuit, and using him as a hare dropped two tenths off Bagnaia's time to shatter the lap record. The KTM rider was 1.2 seconds faster than the best time he set in the test.

Maverick Viñales took second ahead of Pecco Bagnaia. Luca Marini was fourth quickest, ahead of Jorge Martin and Fabio Quartararo. Johann Zarco and Marco Bezzecchi were seventh and eighth respectively, with Aleix Espargaro ninth. Enea Bastianini rounded out the top ten, making it six Ducatis in the top ten.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff Prev
1 43 Jack Miller KTM 1'37.709
2 12 Maverick Viñales Aprilia 1'37.746 0.037 0.037
3 1 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 1'37.856 0.147 0.110
4 10 Luca Marini Ducati 1'37.899 0.190 0.043
5 89 Jorge Martin Ducati 1'37.991 0.282 0.092
6 20 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1'38.015 0.306 0.024
7 5 Johann Zarco Ducati 1'38.112 0.403 0.097
8 72 Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 1'38.158 0.449 0.046
9 41 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1'38.253 0.544 0.095
10 23 Enea Bastianini Ducati 1'38.256 0.547 0.003
11 73 Alex Marquez Ducati 1'38.385 0.676 0.129
12 36 Joan Mir Honda 1'38.394 0.685 0.009
13 42 Alex Rins Honda 1'38.416 0.707 0.022
14 93 Marc Marquez Honda 1'38.419 0.710 0.003
15 30 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1'38.827 1.118 0.408
16 37 Augusto Fernandez KTM 1'38.882 1.173 0.055
17 25 Raul Fernandez Aprilia 1'38.904 1.195 0.022
18 33 Brad Binder KTM 1'38.910 1.201 0.006
19 88 Miguel Oliveira Aprilia 1'38.958 1.249 0.048
20 21 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 1'38.978 1.269 0.020
21 49 Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 1'39.421 1.712 0.443
22 44 Pol Espargaro KTM 1'40.130 2.421 0.709
2023
1
MotoGP
Portimao, Portugal
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Comments

Seems like Pol will be out of action for quite a while! But conscious and moving his arms and legs is a positive sign. Wishing Pol a speedy recovery.

Thriller Miller that lap was out of nowhere!! Though KTM did bring some new parts today and worked tweaked the settings.

 

Pity Binder was still stiff sore from his Portimão test crash, probably won't be back till his best until Argentina round next weekend. 

I commented on another post that everybody will struggle with the KTM, not just Jack....what do I know ?....nothing ! 
 

I saw a replay of Pol's crash...not as long as Martin's tumble but violent just the same. I remember the riders complaining about the gravel size in Portimao. Doesn't slow you gradually. It's either bounce or gripped hard and beaten up. Definitely remember the complaints last year. I think year before too after Martin's crash. Maybe now they'll change it seeing as they now have enough evidence that the riders weren't just making it up for fun. 

It looked like he hit the wall....hard! And it didn't look like an air fence was there, which seems......unthinkable.

 

HRC has hit ROCK BOTTOM, when none of their POS bikes can make it into Q2. How in the hell can a company with the might of Honda, build such a piece of crap for a MGP bike? It seems impossible, but they've managed to do it. Ducati, Aprilia and KTM, COMBINED, would fit into a section of HRC. And KTM, a small, minuscule company, compared to the Godzilla of Honda beat them. There must be some happy folks in Austria.

Not sure about air fence there, but to me it looked like the bike followed him in and hit him pretty hard, difficult to see from the video, which I don't mind at all. I've been officiating at a couple of races where people were killed from being hit by their bikes and really don't like the reminder of how close it can be. I'll bet he'd have walked away without that, looked like a relatively easy off at first. Very pleased to hear that things are looking okay, medically.

Pol is hurt badly.

Broken back, broken jaw, bruised lungs. From hitting the exposed wall without airfence. Unsure if gravel size is related.

Fingers crossed.

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LOVE this track, very much looking fwd to tomorrow. Looks like Miller is going to be good for KTM, including bringing some Duc awareness to their receptive ears. He may be boosting their development right now. He is a very physical "chuck it around" rider, and motivated. Interesting to hear his adoration of the F end feel.  Viva Orange!

His speed into the wall seems to be considered at least somewhat contributed to by the inappropriate gravel trap not slowing him down.

He also ragdolled hard in the rock pit before making it to the wall, much as Martin in 2021 and Digger a couple of weeks ago.  Both of those guys were hurt badly just by the gravel trap and didn't get to the wall.

I don't want to go into full knee-jerk reaction mode but I fail to see how this is possible in this day and age.  It seems like we're sliding back into the 70's or something, the riders continually complained about some safety aspect or other and they are ignored and shrug their shoulders and say 'there's nothing we can do about it' while suiting up to go and potentially throw themselves at the same areas. 

Ten seconds on google found the FIM track standards document:
https://www.fim-moto.com/fileadmin/library/FIM_Standards_for_CIrcuits_2…
and on page 21 it says thus:

4.9 GRAVEL BEDS
The surface of the gravel beds must be completely flat without undulations.
It should be levelled with the racetrack or the lower side of the kerb.
It is also strictly recommended that the gravel level be 1 cm or 2 cm lower
than the edge of the circuit.
The depth of the gravel bed will vary according to the type of gravel
available in the region and the type of run-off area. As standard, the height
of the gravel bed should be 25 cm and the diameter of the grains must be
between 8 mm and 20 mm. Mono-grain is strongly recommended.
The first 5 m of the gravel be should grow gradually until we reach the
exact gravel bed height required.
In order to maintain the effectiveness of the gravel beds, a mixing
(countersinking) should be carried out before every FIM event and all debris
and stones of a diameter superior to the grains must be taken out.
It is also recommended to have:
• A verge of approximately 2 m in width between the edge of the track
and the gravel beds.
• A path of at least 3 m between the gravel bed and the first line of
protection.

It seems several aspects of Portimau's gravel beds are not compliant with the FIM guidelines.  This fact has been pointed out to various levels of officialdom for the last four years.  I'm wondering how someone (FIM / Dorna / track) is not legally liable for Pol's injuries?  In my workplace, if a hazard is identified and nothing is done about it and someone else injures themselves on that same hazard, then someone is in deep shit.  If someone is killed it's called industrial manslaughter.

Hoping for the best for Pol, could have been considerably worse.

Meanwhile aside from that trifling matter... how good was it to see bikes back on track!! :D  Jack's lap was a blinder, not sure how it will pan out today or tomorrow but those sort of performances are what a project needs to put a spring in everyone's step again.

The top 8 bikes are within 0.5 sec, the top 14 within 1 sec. MM is 0.7 sec off the pace. It is so tight nowadays that even 2 -3 tenths is a huge gap. Finding that tiny bit of extra pace is seriously difficult. I think Honda will definitely be working serious overtime at the drawing board, they don’t take losing lightly.

Miller has led a lot of GPs in the early stages then suffered with tyre wear latter on.

The sprint races don't have a latter stage and his surprising (and a whole lot of other positive adjectives) speed in this qualifying shows again that he can qualify and that he doesn't need a Ducati to do so.

Sprints could be interesting!

Wishing Pol the best recovery.

Four Hondas on the track and together on the timesheet. Mid 1m 38 seems like it. Whether you are Taka Nakagami or Marc Marquez. Those three Hondas within 0.025 or a fortieth of a second. The two new Honda riders are a fraction faster than MM93. Maybe because the bike hasn't let them down too many times. Rins & M1R maybe remembering Suzuki?

 

I hope Jack puts it on pole and wins at least the sprint race. The main race could be another matter but who knows? The air is filled with unpredictability! Horrible crash for Pol and wishing for no permanent consequences. So good to have MotoGP back. We are off to Texas for Round 3.