MotoGP Portugal Q2 LIVE: Zarco the most beautiful!

For the moment, the weather forecast for the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, near Portimão, has proven to be accurate, and that's annoying because it predicted wet testing and a possible race on the dry: a headache for technicians and enough to undermine all predictions…

Finally, Miguel Oliveira, Joan Mir, Fabio Quartararo, Brad Binder, Marc Márquez, Pol Espargaró, Marco Bezzecchi, Johann Zarco, Aleix Espargaró and Jack Miller pre-qualified in the wet for Q2, and have just been joined by Alex Marquez et Luca marini, drafted in Qualification 1 on a drying track, to appear on the first four rows of the starting grid.

In which order ? The next 15 minutes will tell us, with the great uncertainty of a dry track on which the drivers have not yet driven this weekend. The first attempts to start on slick tires Takaaki Nakagami et Remy gardner in Q1 turned out to be failures, just like that of Francis Bagnaia a few minutes later. But since then, the track has improved and the best time achieved by Alex Marquez was then used with slicks.

There is therefore no doubt that these will be used for Q2, for the first time this weekend for the drivers concerned, while the track continues to dry under a sky which suddenly becomes mixed again...

MotoGP™ Portimao	4-2021	11-2021	2022
FP1	1'42.127 Maverick Viñales (See here)	1'40.192 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'50.666 Marc Márquez (See here)
FP2	1'39.866 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	1'39.390 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'50.707 Pol Espargaró (See here)
FP3	1'39.044 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'39.202 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	1'50.552 Miguel Oliveira (See here)
FP4	1'39.788 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'39.665 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	1'50.750 Miguel Oliveira (See here)
Q1	1'39.253 Marc Márquez (See here)	1'39.130 Johann Zarco (See here)	1'46.316 Alex Márquez (See here)
Q2	1'38.862 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'38.725 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)	1'42.003 Johann Zarco (See here)
Warm Up	1'39.721 Jack Miller (See here)	1'39.711 Francesco Bagnaia (See here)
Course	Quartararo, Bagnaia, Mir (See here)	Bagnaia, Mir, Miller (See here)
All time lap record	1'38.862 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'38.725 Francesco Bagnaia 2021 (See here)

 

When the red lights go out... it's the duo from the VR 46 team, Marco Bezzecchi et Luca marini, who set off first, under the eyes of their famous boss.

Everyone is probably on soft slicks, but the tire information system is having trouble waking up...

Alex Marquez, already hot from Q1, set the first benchmark in 1'46.569.

In the next passage, Joan mir is in 1'45.414 ahead Jack Miller et Alex Marquez.

The times continue to drop considerably and, on the next pass, Alex Marquez in 1'43.774 precedes Marco Bezzecchi et Luca marini of a second.

In the wake, Marc Márquez takes out the big attack and positions himself right behind his brother.

Joan mir fails at 95/1000 from Alex Márquez before fabio quartararo comes close to 19/1000!

Alex Marquez, whose birthday is today, seems unstoppable and registers 1'43.211 but Johann zarco takes provisional pole position in 1'43.151! fabio quartararo responds to 6 thousandths of his compatriot but John Zarco replies in 1'42.620!

Jack Miller then registered 1'42.503 while fabio quartararo rises to third position.

At the very last moment, Marc Márquez produced his effort and seemed able to take pole position but his teammate made a mistake: the yellow flags came out and his best time was cancelled, just like that of fabio quartararo. Damned!

In extremis, Joan mir seizes provisional pole position… until Johann zarco grabs it at the last second in 1'42.003!

Aleix Espargaró gets from 3rd place on the grid at the last second.

A session of an intensity that we haven't seen in a long time!

Results of Qualifying 2 of the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão:

Results of Qualifying 1 of the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Autodrome in Portimão:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com