Saturday’s Sprint saw an aggressive pack of riders unconcerned about fuel or tires attack the Portimao circuit. Several riders bounced off one another and a few went down during the race. Marquez was shuffled back from an early lead and eventually finished third behind Bagnaia in first and Jorge Martin (Ducati) in second.
In Sunday’s full GP event, Bagnaia again quickly worked his way to the front and kept a small but reasonable gap over Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) all the way to the flag. Vinales finished well ahead of Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati) who took third place.
After a poor start in Sunday’s race, Marquez hit several riders in the first few laps before a major impact with local favorite, and early front runner, Miquel Oliveira (Aprilia). Oliveira and Marquez both went down and both were injured. At the time of this writing, Oliveira appears to have a severely bruised thigh with no broken bones, while Marquez had his right hand casted with an apparent fracture of a metacarpal.
On Saturday, just prior to the Sprint race, Pol Espargaro (GasGas) had a very serious accident that resulted in his hospitalization. Reports indicate that he suffered chest trauma, back trauma (including broken vertebra) and a broken jaw. Fortunately, Pol was not experiencing any paralysis or loss of feeling/movement in his extremities. He is expected to be out of racing for an extended period.
Bagnaia takes a healthy points lead into Round Two next week in Argentina. For full results of the Sprint race, take a look here, with Sunday’s GP results here.
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