MotoGP riders reflect on opening day of practice at Portimao – Moto2/3/E Reports/Results

MotoGP 2025

Round 21 – Portimao – Friday
MotoGP Rider Quotes

Alex Marquez – P1

“I got here in Portugal in the right mood. I’m relax but still wit the right tension for a MotoGP weekend. We need to flow here riding wise and we managed to do so from the early laps. We’re good, the team is working well as always and today’s two sessions were positive.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P2

“This morning we made a mistake with the front-tyre choice. I was having a bit of a difficult time because the bike tended to go wide at some corners and I couldn’t make it stop and flow into the corner. Things went better this afternoon: we started with the soft option to get some feedback from the bike, and then I enjoyed the hard front tyre as well. In the last time attack we managed to set a good lap time without pushing too hard. All in all, I’d say the situation is positive at the moment.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P4

“The day went well because I had positive sensations already in the first session, which were then confirmed in the afternoon. We also managed to improve, especially in the session finale, despite the light rain. It was a good first day and I’m satisfied.”

Joan Mir – P5

“A big smile today, in a positive spiral from the flyaways! Today we confirmed that we can be competitive here as well, I have a good feeling with the bike – especially with the front, and this makes my life on track a lot easier than it has been in the past. The bike is working well, of course there are things to improve but we really have a bike where we can compete now. This is really important, to arrive and know that we can be there and that we are in the area more or less straight away. Our feeling is similar to Sepang, we are close to the top guys and working in the correct way, let’s see what everyone can find tonight to be strong on Saturday too.”

Johann Zarco – P6

“It was a positive Friday, and I was happy to have found the speed straight away. That’s good for the confidence, and the front-end feeling confirms the good feeling from Malaysia. I was able to be fast, to push, and to set a good lap time, but we still need to improve the pace. We’re working hard to find the right solution. With both medium tyres the feeling was better in the afternoon, which was good. Securing a Q2 spot is positive, and now we’ll focus on having a solid qualifying to start from a strong position in the Sprint.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P7

“I’m happy because today we made an excellent plan for the day to really understand which direction to take and to overcome the difficulties we’ve had this year in setting up the bike to push right from the start. The plan worked: with direct access to Q2 we achieved our Friday goal, and we also have a quite clear idea about which tyres to use. We did a great job in the garage, and the performance was strong too, I’m not far from the top guys. We’re working to further improve confidence with the front to optimize the corner entry.”

Fermin Aldeguer – P8

“We hit our Q2 target with excellent feeling from the get-go. I was a little nervous yesterday thinking about this track – and with the chance of rain. But we adapted pretty well to the track and gelled with the bike. We’re probably even in a better place pace wise compared to the time attack, but we can improve the latter as well tomorrow.”

Pol Espargaro – P9

“Fabio Quartararo is one of those guys who keeps pushing even if there is someone behind him, and this is why he is one of the best riders, because he is confident. I tried to follow him, I tried to push as much as I could. It was really tough to make a good lap time today, so I am happy that we managed to make one which has qualified us directly into Q2. Psychologically, it has been so important for myself to reach the pit box back on my bike after my small crash this morning, and it gave me the confidence I needed for the remainder of the day, because obviously, the last time we crashed here was bad. Anyway, it was a good day for us, let’s try to qualify well tomorrow!”

Ai Ogura – P10

“It was a good surprise today – I didn’t expect to get into Q2 directly – so, a positive first day for us. There are still a lot of places to improve but, I think, we are in good form now. We’ve been quite strong in the main race on Sunday recently, but we had to improve on Friday and Saturday. This time, we had a better Friday, so we expect to have a better race on Sunday. Tomorrow is another important day and we’ll see in Qualifying after I tried to approach today in a different way, especially the first five, six laps this morning and it worked for me. It’s good to know we can approach in a different way. I’m happy.”

Luca Marini – P11

“Not our best day, my mistake with the crash and some bad luck. I was a bit wide and the temperature of the tyre dropped, it’s easy to happen here with the conditions we had. It’s a pity because we lost time, we couldn’t use that bike, but I stayed focused to push hard because you could see the weather coming in. For tomorrow we need to improve the braking in Turn 1 and 5, some fine tuning to increase my speed. Today we also tried a couple of new things to help out the engineers which is always good, we’ve made a lot of progress this year but we still have more to make.”

Franco Morbidelli – P12

“After a normal morning where everything was going well, things were complicated and everything changed in the Practice. At the beginning of the session, I crashed unexpectedly, it was really strange. We lost a lot of time, and that didn’t help us. We struggled throughout the session, but with the new tyres I was very close to going straight into Q2, even though the feeling wasn’t great. Unfortunately, we missed out by a tenth. We need to work on the setup to achieve tomorrow’s goal, which is to get into Q2 and fight in every condition.”

Fabio Quartararo – P13

“We are struggling quite a bit. This is a track where grip is very important. When everything is set up right, as a rider you can enjoy riding here like it’s a roller coaster. This is a track I really like, but today my feeling was not great on the bike, so we have to analyse it. We have to try to find a solution for tomorrow to improve our feeling a bit.”

Raul Fernandez – P15

“I feel lucky. This morning, I had one of the biggest crashes I ever experienced in MotoGP. In the moment, I was preparing the corner entry when I felt something strange on the bike and I had to jump off and in that moment, my shoulder popped out and then went in again. This makes me still feel very uncomfortable – I’m not at 100% – but Dr. Angel Charte and the championship medical team did a great job. This afternoon, I felt fit to ride and I tried two laps first of all and was safe to ride the bike. After that, I tried to gather information for tomorrow and honestly, it was a surprise because I felt much better than I expected before jumping back on the bike. So I’m happy – the bike is working well and tonight I need to recover, stay calm and then tomorrow we have another opportunity and if I’m fit, I believe we can fight to go to Q2.”

Jack Miller – P16

“The day started well, with the new tyre I felt comfortable and my pace was good. In the afternoon, the weather conditions became challenging and difficult to read. I couldn‘t find the same feeling, and I also had a small crash at Turn 5 due to the incoming rain. After that, I managed to put together a decent lap, but it wasn‘t enough to get directly into Q2”.

Nicolò Bulega – P17

“Today went quite well. I didn’t give too much importance to the classification: what really mattered was completing as many laps as possible and understanding the many differences compared to the bike I’m used to. Tyres are different, there are the ride-height devices to manage, and the Desmosedici GP is really a powerful machine. The positive thing, ironically enough, is that my riding wasn’t the best — but I guess that’s quite normal. There’s a lot to process and absorb, but I’ll sleep on it and start tomorrow with one more day of experience.”

Alex Rins – P18

“This is a demanding track, and if you make a mistake, like when we missed corner 1 in the Practice, the whole lap is cancelled. Today, we struggled with a mix of problems, maybe because of the low grip and the mixed conditions. Today’s weather out on track was not ideal for us. But we need to stay positive. Let’s see if tomorrow we can do better, especially for the Sprint with more grip on track.”

Enea Bastianini – P19

“Today has been more or less like the other Fridays, unfortunately. Track conditions were difficult, because it was quite dark in Practice, and it was not easy to understand which parts of the track were dry. I also think that our strategy was not great because I just had one lap with the new tires, so we need to improve this for tomorrow. For the first time, we tried the new swing arm, in both sessions. We have improved a bit, but we need to adjust a few things, because after checking the data, we are losing in some strange points of the track, where I am usually good at like T3, so we have to look into this!”

Somkiat Chantra – P20

“Today was crazy! I had a big wheelie in sixth gear. After it, I was shaking and lucky to save it. Throughout the day, I felt good; we’ve been working on different setups to feel comfortable on this track, which is demanding but really fun. I’ll try to give my best, to improve and do better tomorrow.”

Lorenzo Savadori – P21

“Having two Aprilias in Q2 is extremely positive. We tested something interesting that seems to be working well, although it was a bit of a peculiar day because of the weather. I hadn’t raced here for several years and it’s great to be back, but we know that it is an extremely particular track, so it’s positive to see a track where we perform well.”

Miguel Oliveira – P22

“The tricky weather conditions made our day complicated. We worked on the bike setup to find the feeling we were looking for, but unfortunately, the changes we tried didn‘t give us the results we hoped for. Tomorrow we‘ll face an uphill Saturday, but we‘ll keep pushing to turn things around”.

Team Managers

Paolo Bonora – Aprilia Racing

“It was a positive day with Marco doing the fourth-place time which puts him straight through to Q2. We managed to send both Marco and Ogura straight to Q2 in the practice session, but there is still a lot of work to be done in order to be ready for both the sprint race and the long race. However, we know what areas we need to work on to improve. With Lorenzo, on the other hand, we are one hundred percent in line with the plan. We’re continuing to advance technical development solutions to improve the bike.”

Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Aprilia Team Principal

“It has been great to see Raul riding this afternoon. He did an amazing job and we were even close to get him into Q2, which is impressive thinking that a few hours before he was in the hospital. It was a great job from Raul and a great job by the mechanics who had to repair the bike from a big crash. So, thank you very much to everybody – it was a big team effort today. Of course, we are happy to see Ai straight into Q2. He was in a good shape since this morning, always quite fast. He’s improving step by step so, at the end, it was positive. We turned the day to positive and we’ll try again tomorrow with Raul. Hopefully, he will wake up in decent shape and we will try to get him into Q2 and get the best we can in the Sprint.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha Team Director

“We faced more challenges than anticipated at the start of the Portimão weekend. Today’s results reflect the poor track conditions. Unfortunately, we had sudden rain in both session which didn’t help either. Compared to our rivals we tend to struggle more in low-grip conditions, making it a complicated first day. While Fabio still came close to a top-10 result and both riders gave their maximum effort, we remain too far from the front. The level of competition is extremely high, so we are focused on extracting every ounce of performance from our package. The team is committed to supporting the riders as they prepare for a highly competitive Q1 and Sprint. Looking ahead, the forecast for the coming days is sunnier, or at least should provide fully dry sessions, allowing us to work under more consistent conditions.”

Gino Borsoi – Prima Pramac Yamaha Team Director

“Jack started well, setting his best time on the new tyre when the track offered good grip. The afternoon rain created some confusion and reduced grip significantly. Between the two sessions, we worked a lot to help Miguel make a step forward, and tomorrow we‘ll try an important change to give him better support. Unfortunately, Jack couldn‘t make it directly into Q2, but we have some ideas to try”.

MotoGP Practice Report

The opening day of MotoGP practice at Portimão ended with Alex Márquez (BK8 Gresini Racing) setting the benchmark time of 1:37.974, narrowly ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing). Less than a tenth of a second covered the top three as mixed weather conditions added further unpredictability to Friday’s sessions.

Márquez led early and maintained the advantage through the final stages despite intermittent light rain around the Algarve International Circuit. Acosta briefly moved to the top with a 1:38.062, but Alex Márquez responded with the only sub-1:38 lap of the day to reclaim first position. Bagnaia then improved late in the session to close to within 0.048 seconds, while Acosta completed the top three, just 0.088 seconds from the lead.

Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) finished fourth ahead of Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol), with Johann Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) in sixth to make it two Hondas in the top six.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing) placed seventh, followed by Fermín Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing), Pol Espargaró (Red Bull KTM Tech3), and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP) — the latter securing his fourth direct Q2 entry of the season.

Standing in for the injured Maverick Vinales, Pol Espargaro had bounced back from an early fall in the morning session to outshine most of the regular KTM riders again.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) missed the top ten after struggling to improve in the final minutes, while teammate Jack Miller (Prima Pramac Yamaha) crashed at Turn 5 earlier in the session. Bagnaia was temporarily outside the Q2 cut-off before a late lap elevated him to seventh.

Raul Fernandez bounced back from a scary get-off in the morning to finish 15th in the afternoon.

Jack Miller was at the pointy end of the field in the opening practice session but slipped down the order in the mixed conditions experienced during the afternoon, a crash at turn five early on stunting his progress, eventually finishing just ahead of Nicolo Bulega, who is replacing the injured Marc Marquez in the Factory Ducati squad for the last two rounds of the championship.

Home hero Miguel Oliveira rounded out the field after the opening day of practice in Portimao.

Half a second covered the top 11 riders on Friday, setting up a competitive qualifying day on Saturday, followed by the Tissot Sprint in the afternoon.

MotoGP Portimao Practice Times

A late rain shower brought an early end to competitive running in Moto2 practice at Portimão, leaving Aron Canet (Fantic Racing) on top of the timesheets. The Spaniard’s early 1:41.702 stood as the benchmark, 0.192 seconds clear of the field when the conditions effectively curtailed the session.

Jake Dixon (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) and Albert Arenas (Italjet Gresini Moto2) completed the top three, with Dixon the only rider to finish within two-tenths of Canet’s time.

In the ongoing title battle, Manuel Gonzalez (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) placed fourth. Closest rival Diogo Moreira (Italtrans Racing Team) ended the day 12th, narrowly inside the provisional Q2 cut-off.

Gonzalez’s teammate Senna Agius was fifth fastest, maintaining a strong start to the weekend, while Barry Baltus (Fantic Racing), third in the championship, finished ninth.

Portimao Moto2 Practice Times

Moto2 Championship Standings

Moto3

David Almansa (Leopard Racing) is the Moto3 pacesetter heading into Saturday’s action in Portugal after his 1:47.056 was good enough to see the Malaysian GP podium finisher beat the Malaysian GP winner, Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia), by 0.135s.

A flurry of personal best lap times before the rain fell saw Maximo Quiles (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) complete the top three.

The returning Dennis Foggia (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team), who topped FP1, and Leopard Racing’s Adrian Fernandez rounded out Friday’s top five

Joel Kelso (LEVELUP–MTA), Angel Piqueras (FRINSA – MT Helmets – MSI) and Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) all ended the day inside the top nine

Three stand-in stars, Hakim Danish (FRINSA – MT Helmets – MSI), Casey O’Gorman (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) and Brian Uriarte (Red Bull KTM Ajo), all impressed to make it into the top 14

Portimao Moto3 Practice Times

MotoE Combined Qualifying