The penultimate round of a thrilling 2025 MotoGP™ campaign has kicked off on Friday at the Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Portugal. Enea Bastianini and Pol Espargaro were representing the Red Bull KTM Tech3 squad, with the latter filling in for Maverick Viñales for the 5th time this season. The number 44 did us good once again, as he directly reached Q2 for the third time this season with a 9th place in Practice, while Enea Bastianini will have to go through Q1 on Saturday, after finishing 19th.
Grand Prix of Portugal
As Maverick Viñales continues to recover, Pol Espargaro was once again a man on a mission arriving to Portimao, with some unfinished business between the Spaniard and the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, the track where he was seriously injured during the opening round of the 2023 season. Time has flown by since then, and Espargaro was ready to face this new challenge and step once again into Viñales’ boots. And he did brilliantly so, as Polyccio grabbed his direct Q2 ticket after taking the 9th place of a rain-disrupted Practice session on Friday afternoon. After a positive FP1 at the end of which we saw him take the 5th time this morning, the Spaniard managed to make it to the coveted top 10 on Friday afternoon, thanks to a very late improvement in 1'38.424, one that saw him remain in 9th at the final checkered flag. Solid job from the Spaniard, who will give his best to place his RC16 on the front rows on Saturday.
Fridays have not been Enea Bastianini’s favorites this season, with the Italian having often struggled to quickly adapt his RC16 to new tracks. One of the key points of the day was the new swing arm, brought to Enea for the first time this morning. The Italian was finally able to benefit from it, and small improvements were already noticed by the Italian, although he will need to get his head around it. In Free Practice 1, Enea was just 1.2 seconds off early pace setter, Alex Marquez. In the afternoon, track conditions were a bit tricky, with the rain joining the party, and the best Enea could give was a 1'39.130, placing him in 19th of the timesheets. He will have to face Q1 on Saturday morning at 10:50 local time, shortly after Free Practice 2 kicking off MotoGP™ action at 10:10. Then, there will be the penultimate Tissot Sprint of the season, at 15:00 for 12 laps.
POL ESPARGARO: "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!"
ENEA BASTIANINI: "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!"
PRACTICE SESSION RESULTS
1. Alex Marquez (SPA), BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP, 1'37.974
2. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA), Ducati Lenovo Team, +0.030
3. Pedro Acosta (SPA), Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, +0.088
9. Pol Espargaro (SPA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +0.450
19. Enea Bastianini (ITA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.156
TRACK RECORDS
All time record: 2023 - M. Marquez (SPA) - 1'37.226 - 170.0 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2024 - E. Bastianini (ITA) - 1'38.685 - 167.5 km/h
Best Pole: 2023 - M. Marquez (SPA) - 1'37.226 - 170.0 km/h
Top Speed: 2024 - M. Oliveira (POR) - 352.9 km/h
