2023 Portimão MotoGP Sprint Result: Fun Concept, Familiar Result

By Zara Daniela | Sat, 25/03/2023 - 15:56

After a fantastic qualifying session, it was soon time for the premier class to battle it out for the thrill of becoming the first winner of a sprint race. The outcome wasn’t all that surprising, the Ducatis stretching their legs nicely over the 12 lap sprint, but they did face some competition at least. Poleman Marc Marquez managed to get a good launch off the line, as did Enea Bastianini, the Italian immediately jumping up to second but quickly deposed by teammate Pecco Bagnaia and fellow front row starter Jorge Martin. The Beast’s day soon got a lot worse, as he became the innocent victim in Luca Marini’s crash, the two Ducatis out of proceedings on lap two. Speaking of victims, an overly optimistic move from Joan Mir ran Fabio Quartararo wide and dropped him to the back of the field on the opening lap.

Back at the front, two Bologna bullets shot past the leading Honda as soon as they got the chance on the main straight, Bagnaia picking up the lead ahead of Martin and Marquez, the trio stretching a handful of tenths' advantage over the first couple of laps. Martin attacked the number 1 on lap four and it briefly looked like a done deal, as Bagnaia lost half a second over the next lap, while Marquez dropped back into the clutches of the chasing group including Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira. The Honda didn’t last long in front of the KTM and Aprilia men and swiftly dropped to 5th by lap five.

However, the leading quintet had come back together by the halfway point of proceedings, with Miller setting the hottest pace of the lot but not exactly lightning fast, allowing the chasing factory Aprilias to gain some ground. Miller attacked for the lead soon after but could not resist the straight line speed of the Ducati machines and handed back top spot to Martin with five laps remaining.

Martin was allowed a bit of breathing room while Bagnaia found a way past Miller, but the world champion did so with three laps remaining and the Ducati duo had stretched a one second gap at the front going into the final lap. Bagnaia eventually made his move at turn five and managed his lead to the chequered flag, becoming the first sprint winner and demoting Martin to second place. In the battle for third, Oliveira’s move on Miller at the first corner allowed Marquez to swoop in and rob both of them with two laps remaining, but holding position was a tough ask for the Honda man. Oliveira started the final lap in third, to the delight of the home crowd, but ran well wide at turn 11 and gifted Marquez the third-place medal.

Miller missed out on the podium by eight hundredths of a second, ahead Maverick Viñales and Aleix Espargaro, the two factory Aprilias busy swapping the same paint in the closing stages. Oliveira’s last lap mistake dropped him all the way down to seventh position but the home favourite had a big gap to the rest of the field. Quartararo managed to recover some ground after his early misfortune and spent the final half of the race battling for eighth place but ended up just outside the point-scoring positions, behind Johann Zarco and Alex Marquez.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time/Diff
1 1 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 19:52.8620
2 89 Jorge Martin Ducati 0.307
3 93 Marc Marquez Honda 1.517
4 43 Jack Miller KTM 1.603
5 12 Maverick Viñales Aprilia 1.854
6 41 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 2.106
7 88 Miguel Oliveira Aprilia 2.940
8 5 Johann Zarco Ducati 5.595
9 73 Alex Marquez Ducati 5.711
10 20 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 5.924
11 25 Raul Fernandez Aprilia 8.160
12 33 Brad Binder KTM 8.384
13 42 Alex Rins Honda 11.288
14 21 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 17.138
15 30 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 18.128
16 49 Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 21.235
Not Classified
  72 Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 03:23.2820
  10 Luca Marini Ducati 01:42.6100
  23 Enea Bastianini Ducati 01:42.1980
  36 Joan Mir Honda  
  37 Augusto Fernandez KTM  
2023
1
MotoGP
Portimao, Portugal
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Comments

I called Marc for a podium at this round, but I'll admit I was losing faith when those Aprilias came knocking. I can't see it happening over the longer distance, though. Whatever one's misgivings about the sprint format, it certainly delivers on entertainment. 

Can't hate on Dorna's decision yet, as that was indeed a thrilling sprint regardless of the final outcome. Miller was just as rapid as his one-lap pace suggested, and the Aprilia is still quite the bike. Will be interesting to see if much changes over a full race distance.

Currently in two minds about the format.  Being a traditionalist i was already sceptical.  

No doubt it was a good race, Miller & MM were exceptional.  

We have seen the teams have to adjust to suit the new format, i think they are going to have backup riders ready to go.  The beasts broken shoulder shows what a few riders were concerned about.  The risk/reward factor during the sprint races.  He gets injured fighting for a few points and misses out on full points in tommorows race.  Also looks like concerns over bonuses for riders was valid.

Fantastic race with plenty of action and passes. Good job, Dorna!

Two riders down and out after one of forty-two. Bastiannini has a broken shoulder blade. Teams might want to stock up on replacement riders. Wherever elite motorcyclists may be... What were you thinking, Dorna?

 

I approached it with an open mind but my initial thoughts on the sprint race - it’s just a balls out career wrecker, that has no place in the premier class. It’s over before it’s started, no class, no fineness and undermines the whole concept of the exquisite engineering that go in to a modern gp machine. Still, I’m sure it will find favour with those of limited attention span.

Great race. Can't see anything to suggest it wasn't a race hard won and worthy of being called a race win. Stats be dammed.

I do wonder if they need to change the points system though. As Martin pointed out, there's no point fighting for zero points and that begins from 8th place down. After the first 2 or 3 laps, if a rider has lost enough ground then race over, test begins. That might put a lot of pressure on riders to take big risks in those first few laps. Full race points go all the way down to 15th...sprint is top 7 places only. It also might mean that half the field stops racing because they have the full distance and full points race the very next day, better not to risk all for nothing. Didn't see anything on the stream from lower in the field. Maybe it doesn't matter, the front of the field provided plenty.

Also -> Viva Miller

edit: or is it points to 9th ? No idea

I didn't pay much attention to this years tests but everything I read told me KTM were in trouble. Ok, they can sort it out I think, Brad can still produce races, top 5 on a good Sunday, Miller will get there after some races. Not a complete disaster yet I thought, long season etc.

I think Miller's crew discovered how to turn the pitlane limiter off.

I'm about out on this sport. The gimmicks are overtaking the racing. Aero, sprints, shape shifters, this odd obsession with showing other people watching racing instead of showing the racing. This TV coverage is the worst of anything I have ever seen. They've succeeded in ruining it for me. Another sport ruined by trying to appeal to people who don't want to watch the sport. Whatever

100% agree with your last point.  I text my brother about BT coverage being poor this weekend.  BT used to boast about showing every session.  Friday was the dorna feed.  Moto2 & moto3 practice 3 wasn't shown on tv (was it shown on the world feed?), motogp practice prior to qualifying was shown on a channel i couldnt get (BT 5).

It seemed like they wasn't bothered about hardcore fans who watches EVERY session.  

Maybe i just have to accept I'm not their target audience anymore 

Sprint was a fantastic show obviously, watched it 4x.

Low regard for Marini's taking out Bastiannini (Adam Wheeler, you are yet again off point promoting Luca -- he isn't coming fwd, he's lucky DiGi is here to be the Armada caboose behind him). Hard to watch Mir and a Honda front end crash nearly take out Quarty. These two incidents were problematic. The former very hard to stomach, literally for me. It pains me to see EB23 out for the first 2 Rounds then recovering, that there removes a top Title contender.

Sprint #1 went generally as I expected. A few specific riders surprised. (Dead horse, but Marini was not amongst them).

An issue of responsibility arises when there is increased risk. I am looking at the riders to adjust to the new situation, and do not blame organizers. Pol's airfence and rocky gravel excepted.

Miller, a rear end blasting style, goes with the Soft front. Finds good front end feel and confidence on the KTM. Takes outside lines at entry rather than brake smashing, and gets on the throttle SUPER early. Tire wear be damned, fresh approach to riding Orange. Might not work tomorrow, but since he doesn't know better it just might. I think his tires will go off. Do you believe yet that an Orange light is going on?

The Marc is back which will be fun. Yamaha and Quarty were there today, encouraging. Get well soon EB23! 

I'm not going to whinge about the format because at the end of the day the fans (and sponsors, tracks, local business) all get much more value out of it. Selfishly, it just enhances the Friday/Saturday sessions that I would be watching anyway.

I don't want to see the sport grow up too quickly (or much at all if I'm honest), but it also has to evolve. I'll roll with the punches and optimistically tune in to see where we end up at years end.

Haven't heard any rider say they noticed it was different racing on a track that had not just hosted a Moto2 race.  Will be interesting to see if the comparisons are drawn after the full race.

Everything we said would happen, happened.
Excitement... injury.
I'm still conflicted about it, the purist in me hates it but you can't deny that format made for a far more exciting-to-watch Saturday (and Friday for that matter).
Sorry for EB, I was looking forward to him being the fly in the other unspellable bloke's ointment.  Most likely still will do so, from a position out of the championship contention.  We have perhaps seen the downside of Ducatis eight-almost-identical-bikes policy - they all run off ahead and take each other out!  Going back some years, there's no doubt the satellite bikes were given a "special tuneup" if required to keep them away from the factory riders (Barros Ducati and Spies Yam spring to mind).  Sadly we'll now have only one red bike on the grid tomorrow and probably Pirro as a placemarker towards the back for the next couple of rounds.
Was great to see Miller being the upset and proving pessimistic predictions (my own included) wrong.  He could indeed prove to be the signing that KTM really needed, not only for his speed but bringing a different perspective and experience of other bikes to a project which was already close but missing something.  Looked like the punt on the soft front didn't quite hang in there though, he did well (and benefited from a little luck) to hang onto fourth.
Was there air fence at the site of Pol's crash?

I, for one, found the sprint race truly exciting and am looking forward to more. I do have concerns regarding a potential high rider attrition rate but several riders commented that they enjoyed the race so it is a risk/reward thing. If you are struggling in the back half of the field I guess you use it as another practice session with overtaking included. Will there be substitutes for Pol and Enea?

The sprint race surprised me because 12 laps felt like the right amount for a GP race. Apparently I’m growing fatigued by protracted displays of ride height devices and electronics. 12 laps of rock-em-sock-em feels like a good trade.

Whatever. It was a meaningless good time. When the manufacturers are making excrement sandwiches, Dorna will have to jump the shark (several times) to defibrillate this corpse back to life. Anyway, let’s hope for the best. The riders are taking the same risks. They deserve a proper profession that pays more than 2-3 top guys.

I think it was Marquez the younger who described a normal race as 4 laps to make position, act 1, a middle bit, act 2 and 5 frantic laps, act 3 to finish. The sprint just leaves out the nothingness bit in the middle. Those middle laps always seemed superfluous with current tyre management strategies. And I agree the points beyond 9 need to count otherwise no reason to keep pushing if you're down there.