2024 MotoGP World Championship
Round Two – Autódromo Internacional do Algarve
Grande Prémio Tissot de Portugal – Portimao
Jorge Martin – P1
“Back on top on a Sunday, I think, you know, this consistency we are demonstrating is the most important. And today, the key was the start. I was really committed to taking the lead in the first corner, and then I tried to close a lot on the third corner because I knew it was my key to win today. Finally, I tried to manage a bit at the beginning, and as soon as I started pushing, I saw nobody. They weren’t able to close that gap. As soon as they closed a little bit, I pulled again. So I think it was a really mature, mature Sunday, mature win. I’m really happy and proud of the team we are doing with the new Ducati. And, you know, to win here at a track where I almost lost everything. I almost stopped racing, and now I’m here in the first place. This is amazing.”
Enea Bastianini – P2
“It was a good battle. I never stopped believing until the end, but Jorge Martín pushed very hard and did a perfect race, so I had to settle for second. This is a special result for me, as Portimão isn’t among my favourite tracks. Surely, it’s a really great circuit, but prior to this weekend I had never been able to be really strong here. The three of us at the front did some push and pull throughout the race, but in the end the win was an impossible task today. Having Maverick (Viñales) ahead of me made my life a bit more complicated as he was really strong in the fourth sector, and I was never able to get close enough to him in the rest of lap. Things may have been easier had I been in front of him, but I was a bit nervous in the opening lap and made a few too many mistakes. I would like to thank the team and my family for their support because it wasn’t easy to return to top positions after such a complicated 2023 season.”
Pedro Acosta – P3
“It is not easy to come to a new track with no experience on the MotoGP bike, but I only have good words for my team. They are working like hell to provide me with the best bike, I always have messages from my crew chief asking me to check some things, to try finding good ways to prepare, and honestly we have done an amazing job. Since the race start, the bike felt much better than yesterday, but I have raced on the long distance my whole life, so the main race is more natural to me. We managed our tyres pretty well, and we did many good overtakes. However, the one that I enjoyed the most was Pecco Bagnaia, because I spent a lot of time behind him before, and I was able to learn from him, it was a great opportunity. It was a great weekend for us, but we have to keep our feet on the ground, because there are many more new circuits to learn, so we will now focus on the next one and try having a good one in Austin.”
Brad Binder – P4
“It was cool to take 4th today even though we had some help with it. It was a really tough weekend and I struggled to get comfortable and that meant it was hard in the race because I wanted to push and go with the boys. I had to ride smart and make sure I didn’t make the same mistake as yesterday. To have 4th after a hectic and hard weekend…we’ll take it.”
Jack Miller – P5
“Stoked to be reporting a bit of a turnaround since the last one of these from the opener in Qatar. I really enjoy the Portugal GP circuit, atmosphere, fans…all of it, and it’s always a nice time to enter Europe and compete on a track where we didn’t pull any testing data from. It’s a little bit more of an unknown for everyone and the work begins after the first session. As a team, we were fairly competitive across all sessions, being there or thereabouts from the first practice session onwards. We managed to post a time that took us directly into Q2, and the feeling on the bike matched the pace for me which was nice. A couple of fifths followed from Q2 to the Sprint Race, which I was happy…ish with. I feel like I left a little more on the table in the Sprint, and took a little too long to adapt to the conditions with the wind. Once I was comfortable though I kept the gap, which I believe was our maximum pace for that race. Starting from fifth in the Feature Race, I started up with the front guys and tried to keep in tow, and was pretty fast in most areas except the last sector which I was struggling to tip it into. I was trying to hang in there until the tire dropped, sinking the claws into the guys at the front if you like, and yeah just kind of did the best I could. We were fortunate with a couple of mistakes by the others at the end, although you gotta have some luck of your own sometimes, right? But all in all, this was a massive step up from Qatar. The bike has plenty of potential, it’s just about unlocking it by digging into the data and having a crack out on track. America is up next at COTA, which is a GP that I really enjoy as well, so we’ll be looking to come out firing as a team and put in a strong result that allows us to continue to build.”
Marco Bezzecchi – P6
“We have collected a lot of info and this is the most important thing. Today’s race wasn’t fantastic, but a definite step forward compared to Qatar. I managed to do some good laps, not at the level of the strongest riders, but my confidence with the bike has improved. The real problem was the first corners, I wasn’t incisive and the pressure on the front tire immediately increased. In those conditions it’s even more difficult, then alone I felt better and didn’t finish badly.”
Fabio Quartararo – P7
“After yesterday’s Sprint, I expected to finish a little bit closer to the front guys today, but in terms of position I expected this. We have some good data to analyse, and hopefully we can make some steps forward. It looks like the weather tomorrow will be quite bad, but hopefully we will have a good day to try some things. Apparently, we have many items to test, so that will be great. Hopefully the weather will allow us to test them. We have many small things that we have to improve step by step. We’re on the right way, but we need to be patient.”
Aleix Espargaro – P8
“I’m really disappointed for Maverick because he had an incredible weekend and he deserved the podium, but unfortunately, that’s how racing is. I was unable to find the right feeling all weekend. I was lacking grip at the rear. In any case, I still set a good pace coming back from the rear and I’m taking some important points home.”
Miguel Oliveira – P9
“It was what I could do. The opening lap and the first few corners have been quite ok. I managed to overtake Rins and Quartararo and I was on course to a top 10 finish, ninth place without crashes. But unfortunately, when Bezzecchi overtook me in the first corner, he took me a little bit wide and I had to stop the bike and go around the whole turn one and two, where I lost three positions. It’s a real shame because with all the crashes, we could have finished in P6, which would have been very uplifting this weekend. But we have to take the positives; in the race, it was the best bike I rode during the weekend. I could fight, be competitive and do something in terms of results. It’s definitely another starting point to build up from here so, hopefully, in Texas we can continue the progression.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio – P10
“I’m not very happy with the race, certainly the potential we could express today was much higher, but we made a mistake which compromise our recovery. On the one hand, knowing what the problem was helps us, also considering that we are only at the second race with the Team. We go to the US ready to do well. Overall the balance is positive, we improved from Friday to the race.”
Augusto Fernandez – P11
“I am happy to score some points after a tough start to the season, so we have to be happy with P11, it is a start. I felt good in the race, I could recover some positions, so it is good. We are still struggling, but we need to keep working, because there is potential. We just need to gather all the pieces together, and hopefully we can continue improving in Austin. Of course, congratulations to Pedro Acosta and the team for their result. Pedro did an unbelievable job today and is exceeding all expectations!”
Joan Mir – P12
“I am happy with how we performed today, if you look just at the final results page it maybe wouldn’t seem like it. On the first lap we had a huge contact with Morbidelli, my leathers on the right side were almost fully black and the bike suffered a lot of damage and I was sent wide. It was quite hard to manage with all the damage, but even like this we were able to match the pace of the guys battling for the top ten. The key point we need to work on is improving our Qualifying so we can avoid these type of incidents. Everyone in the team and HRC have done a great job to improve from where we were on Friday so I want to say thank you to them.”
Alex Rins – P13
“These are my first Yamaha points, but maybe it wasn’t enough for us. But the second Race is done – it was a hard one. These two races, Qatar and Portimao, didn’t go as I expected. We need to work a little bit more on our own. After this Race, I realised I need to do something different on the bike because I had similar problems today as I had in Qatar. I was struggling a lot with the front. Tomorrow, when we have a private test here, maybe we will need to focus more on the set-up than on the new parts. It’s just our second Race, and we need to get used to the bike and need to understand it.”
Takaaki Nakagami – P14
“The situation compared to yesterday hasn’t changed a lot, but this morning we found something as we decided to do some modifications to improve the grip. I’ve got a better feeling, and we’ve kept it for the race. I could have taken a better position, but I lost a lot of time following Marini. Then I just tried my best and scored some points, which is always important”.
Johann Zarco – P15
“It’s been a tough race; I didn’t expect to struggle this way. Lap after lap we’ve learned many things and, in the end, we’ve grabbed a point. We now have a direction to follow, which will help us in Austin”.
Marc Marquez – P16
“A racing incident that none of us would have wanted. We go home with no points, but after a positive weekend in which we found continuity and speed. The stewards have decided that the incident deserves no sanction and we accept the decision. Pecco tried to defend his position, maybe with a little bit of optimism. The result still is the one nobody would have wished.”
Luca Marini – P17
“We had a better race today than in Qatar and also compared to yesterday, I am happy with the changes we have made to the bike. I was enjoying riding towards the end of the race which was a good little step ahead. Joan Mir has a better feeling on the bike and certainly more experience so he’s able to extract more from the bike, it’s motivating, and we need to study what he is doing. It’s a positive weekend, despite the result, because we got a lot of really good information, and we know what areas to follow and also which areas we should not with the setting. There’s room to keep improving.”
Maverick Vinales – DNF
“From the sixth lap I could tell that something wasn’t working right with the gearbox. I was losing a lot of time on the straight. I still felt like I could have won, though. It’s a shame about the technical problem. In any case, I’m happy because I know that I gave one hundred percent. This weekend we took a huge step forward. We got our speed back and we demonstrated that the RS-GP24 can win. Now we’ll head to Austin, a track that I like and where I’ll arrive more motivated than ever.”
Francesco Bagnaia – DNF
“I got a good start but unfortunately chose the wrong line at turn three: I closed the line a bit, while the outside would have been a better choice. I wanted to overtake Enea in the early laps as I saw him having a bit of a difficult time, but at some point, I started experiencing a lack of grip at the rear-end which prevented me from pushing as hard as I wanted. We weren’t at our best and it’s clear we couldn’t find the perfect solution, even though the feeling was very good both yesterday and this morning. It’s a pity; we’ll now focus on the next race as after the warmup I felt I had the potential to battle at the front – but we weren’t able to capitalise. I’m particularly sorry because we have worked well, but we were missing something in today’s race.”
Alex Marquez – DNF
“Shame, because we had a good start. I pushed a lot as today’s MotoGP forces you to do a little bit more in the early laps. I gave my all and unfortunately, I ended up crashing. I got back on track simply because had it rained, everything would have changed, but after a few laps I decided to pull out of the race. A Sunday to forget, but we’ll try again at Austin.”
Raul Fernandez – DNF
“I’m lucky that I’m ok. It was honestly a very stupid crash, a rookie mistake. During the track walk I told my crew chief that you need to be calm in this corner when you get a bit offline and I actually didn’t manage to do that. Until then, I felt good with the bike, I had a good pace, I did a 39.2 in one lap. But maybe I was a bit too ambitious at the beginning of the race. I saw we had the pace, I was closing and I was there but I made the mistake. I would like to say sorry to the team. It’s not nice to start the season like this, but this is just the beginning. For sure, we have more opportunities and in two weeks we are at COTA, a track I really like. So, we should forget this Sunday now and focus on the US.”
Team Managers
Nicolas Goyon – GASGAS Team Manager
“What an unbelievable weekend we just had here in Algarve. Following yesterday’s sprint, we knew that Pedro Acosta had a good pace, and that with a good start, he could stay with the leaders. But today was beyond our expectations! He did an amazing race and made the show today with his overtakes on Brad Binder, Marc Marquez and World Champion Pecco Bagnaia. He is just a rookie, and achieving a podium on what was only his second race in MotoGP is truly a great achievement, for both himself and the whole Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 team. We are very happy, and the only thing we can do is enjoy the moment, until we head to the next round. I would also like to congratulate Augusto Fernandez, who is not giving up despite the issues he is facing, and he is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He finished in P11 today, so let’s keep working like this Augusto, and you’ll be back to the top very soon. Congratulations to the team, and head to Austin in two weeks.”
Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager
“Quite good feelings about today because it was not an easy weekend and to have these positions on a Sunday afternoon means we were not too bad. The gap could be better, the feeling for the riders also, but we took points for the championship and the Teams standings. Congratulations to Pedro. This is a good sign that the equipment is working well and for different riding styles and is a friendly bike. As a manufacturer we have to be proud of the work so far.”
Pablo Nieto – Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Manager
“The general balance of the weekend is certainly more positive than Qatar, especially considering that we managed to get both riders into the Top10. We had some gifts at the end of the race, but in any case it is important to be there close to the strongest guys. Marco is not yet completely comfortable with the bike, but he has made a great steps forward and is becoming competitive again. Fabio is also doing well, perhaps for the first time since he has been in this Team he has struggled more than expected, but he continues his work with the crew.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director
“It was a tough Race. In the end, Fabio is in the top 7 and Álex scored his first points, but this was mostly due to the late race incidents. Our riders gave it their best shot, and every point counts, but we can’t be satisfied with our overall performance level during this Race. That said, today’s data will be useful for us. We have a private test in Portimao tomorrow. We will use this opportunity to try some set-up solutions to improve the feeling with the front tyre in time for COTA, which is tough on the front tyre. We will also test some new items that we’re working on, because we are keen to introduce updates throughout this season.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Trackhouse Team Manager
“After a hectic weekend in Portugal, which was the home race of Miguel, we had some issues, no grip and finally a ninth place, which is not amazing but brings seven points. Job done, but of course, we want more. Clearly, in the race, the bike was the best we had it the whole weekend. Miguel was in P9 before he had an incident with Bezzecchi, he went really wide, lost 2.5 seconds and then he missed the connection to the three boys in front. Then, of course, being 12th and having three riders crashing out gave us ninth place, which is a good result. Raul had a bad start, was attacking very well in the beginning and he was fighting with Augusto Fernandez and taking a tight line, lost the front while fighting to go forward. Lesson learned. I think we have a lot to come for the upcoming rounds, because the speed is there.”
Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Team Principal
“At the end of the day, we scored some points, which is positive. Of course, we expected and wanted more than that. I can take the positives of this weekend. In the race, Miguel found the best feeling of the weekend but, unfortunately, starting from that position made it difficult to get more. Also, Raul was very confident all weekend with his bike. Let’s take this home and to the next race. The weekend in Portugal was very important for Miguel, unfortunately, we couldn’t completely reach what we wanted but we will try again. It’s a long championship and if we continue to work like this we can find a way to make both comfortable on the bike and that’s our target. But we know, we have to work”
MotoGP Portimao Race Results
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Jorge Martin | DUCATI | 41m18.138 |
| 2 | Enea Bastianini | DUCATI | +0.882 |
| 3 | Pedro Acosta | KTM | +5.362 |
| 4 | Brad Binder | KTM | +11.129 |
| 5 | Jack Miller | KTM | +16.437 |
| 6 | Marco Bezzecchi | DUCATI | +19.403 |
| 7 | Fabio Quartararo | YAMAHA | +20.130 |
| 8 | Aleix Espargaro | APRILIA | +21.549 |
| 9 | Miguel Oliveira | APRILIA | +23.929 |
| 10 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | DUCATI | +28.195 |
| 11 | Augusto Fernandez | KTM | +28.244 |
| 12 | Joan Mir | HONDA | +29.271 |
| 13 | Alex Rins | YAMAHA | +31.334 |
| 14 | Takaaki Nakagami | HONDA | +34.932 |
| 15 | Johann Zarco | HONDA | +38.267 |
| 16 | Marc Marquez | DUCATI | +40.174 |
| 17 | Luca Marini | HONDA | +40.775 |
| 18 | Franco Morbidelli | DUCATI | +52.362 |
Portimao MotoGP Top Speeds Across Weekend
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Speed |
| 1 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | APRILIA | 352.9 |
| 2 | Aleix ESPARGARO | APRILIA | 351.7 |
| 3 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | DUCATI | 351.7 |
| 4 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 351.7 |
| 5 | Marco BEZZECCHI | DUCATI | 350.6 |
| 6 | Francesco BAGNAIA | DUCATI | 350.6 |
| 7 | Marc MARQUEZ | DUCATI | 350.6 |
| 8 | Raul FERNANDEZ | APRILIA | 349.5 |
| 9 | Johann ZARCO | HONDA | 349.5 |
| 10 | Enea BASTIANINI | DUCATI | 349.5 |
| 11 | Pedro ACOSTA | KTM | 348.3 |
| 12 | Maverick VIÑALES | APRILIA | 348.3 |
| 13 | Alex RINS | YAMAHA | 348.3 |
| 14 | Alex MARQUEZ | DUCATI | 348.3 |
| 15 | Jorge MARTIN | DUCATI | 348.3 |
| 16 | Fabio QUARTARARO | YAMAHA | 347.2 |
| 17 | Luca MARINI | HONDA | 347.2 |
| 18 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | KTM | 347.2 |
| 19 | Jack MILLER | KTM | 347.2 |
| 20 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | HONDA | 345.0 |
| 21 | Franco MORBIDELLI | DUCATI | 343.9 |
| 22 | Joan MIR | HONDA | 342.8 |
MotoGP Championship Standings
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | MARTIN | 60 |
| 2 | BINDER | 42 |
| 3 | BASTIANINI | 39 |
| 4 | BAGNAIA | 37 |
| 5 | ACOSTA | 28 |
| 6 | M MARQUEZ | 27 |
| 7 | ESPARGARO | 25 |
| 8 | VIÑALES | 19 |
| 9 | MILLER | 16 |
| 10 | DI GIANNANTONIO | 15 |
| 11 | QUARTARARO | 15 |
| 12 | A MARQUEZ | 13 |
| 13 | BEZZECCHI | 12 |
| 14 | OLIVEIRA | 8 |
| 15 | MIR | 7 |
| 16 | FERNANDEZ | 5 |
| 17 | ZARCO | 5 |
| 18 | RINS | 3 |
| 19 | NAKAGAMI | 2 |
| 20 | MARINI | 0 |
| 21 | MORBIDELLI | 0 |
| 22 | R FERNANDEZ | 0 |
2024 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar (Updated)
| Rnd | Date | Location |
| 3 | 14 Apr | Americas Circuit of The Americas |
| 4 | 28 Apr | Spain Circuito de Jerez-Ángel Nieto |
| 5 | 12 May | France Le Mans |
| 6 | 26 May | Catalunya Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya |
| 7 | 02 Jun | Italy Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello |
| 8 | 16 Jun | Kazakhstan Sokol International Racetrack |
| 9 | 30 Jun | Netherlands TT Circuit Assen |
| 10 | 07 Jul | Germany Sachsenring |
| 11 | 04 Aug | Great Britain Silverstone Circuit |
| 12 | 18 Aug | Austria Red Bull Ring-Spielberg |
| 13 | 01 Sep | Aragon MotorLand Aragón |
| 14 | 08 Sep | San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini Misano |
| 15 | 22 Sep | India Buddh International Circuit |
| 16 | 29 Sep | Indonesia Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit |
| 17 | 06 Oct | Japan Mobility Resort Motegi |
| 18 | 20 Oct | Australia Phillip Island |
| 19 | 27 Oct | Thailand Chang International Circuit |
| 20 | 03 Nov | Malaysia Sepang International Circuit |
| 21 | 17 Nov | Comunitat Valenciana Circuit Ricardo Tormo |
