For the second weekend of the season, the Grand Prix takes place in Portugal. After a sprint race on Saturday, we revisit the second Grand Prix of the season for the two Azuréen drivers.
Johann Zarco’s qualifying went poorly on his Honda at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. Fabio Quartararo positions himself at 9th on the starting grid. This Saturday, March 23, the sprint race took place, with Quartararo also finishing in 9th position. He benefited from the fall of Rins and Binder ahead of him to improve his grid ranking.
At the start of this second Grand Prix, the tire choice is the same for everyone, with hard at the front and medium at the rear. The two Azuréen drivers are ranked 11th and 12th respectively in the driver standings for the season.
For the second start of the year, Fabio Quartararo is in a fierce battle with his teammate, Rins, but manages to quickly break away. Johann Zarco completely missed his start but does not lose any position and stays in 16th place. Behind number 20, a group quickly forms, not managing to catch up with Jack Miller. By the 16th lap, Zarco is only two small seconds away from Alex Rins. He is caught by surprise on lap 13 by Joan Mir, dropping him to 17th position.
A surprising end of race for the two drivers
A weekend to forget for Johann Zarco, losing a lot of pace, being the only rider lapping at 1:41.1. He gets overtaken by his Honda teammate, Takaaki Nakagami. Six laps from the end, Quartararo is passed by Marco Bezzecchi and Miguel Oliveira, losing two places to slip to 11th position. He manages to climb back to 10th place by the fourth lap.
After the crash between Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Marc Marquez (Gresini) two laps from the end, the Nice-based driver takes advantage and moves up to 8th position. The end of the race is marked by numerous crashes, and on the last lap, Vinales (Aprilia) falls due to a technical problem. The Azuréen drivers are thus able to capitalize, placing Quartararo in 7th place and Johann Zarco in 15th.
The race concludes with Jorge Martin (Pramac) taking victory ahead of Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3). See you from April 12 to 14 for an exciting weekend at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas.
