MotoGP News

The penultimate round of the MotoGP season brings us back to Portugal but this time not for the Portuguese Grand Prix, held in April, but for the Algarve Grand Prix. Although the drivers championship is decided in favor of Fabio Quartararo following the last race at Misano, the fight for the constructors and teams championship is still open between Ducati with the Ducati Lenovo Team and Yamaha with the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP.

The 4592m long Algarve circuit has been used only twice before for a MotoGP race, the first time was in last year’s Portuguese Grand Prix held in November. That race was won by  home rider Miguel Oliveira  (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) who took the second MotoGP win of his career now totalling three wins. For Oliveira that was a weekend of firsts: first Pole Position, first Fastest lap and first Front Row start. Oliveira won after leading from start to finish.

The second MotoGP race held at Algarve was for this year’s Portuguese Grand Prix, in beautiful spring weather, it was Fabio Quartararo who took his second win of the season after starting from pole position. Quartararo didn’t dominate the race like Oliveira had done five months ago, the frenchman had a terrible start and dropped back to P6 after the first lap but fought his way back to take the lead on lap 9. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki ECSTAR) who set the Fastest Lap of the race and Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) were the other 2 race leaders. 

With only 2 MotoGP races having been held at Algarve so far, the result list is short, but with two different constructors as winners (KTM & Yamaha) and two different teams (Red Bull KTM Tech 3 & Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) this might be a good omen for Ducati, as the constructor and team title is still up for grabs. Ducati drivers have done well in the previous two races at Algarve with ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) finishing second in April and teammate Jack Miller also finishing second in last year’s race. 

Fabio Quartararo’s teammate, Franco Morbidelli has also performed well at Algarve as he finished fourth in this year’s Portuguese Grand Prix after starting from P5 and finished on the podium in the 2020 edition after he had started from P2 on the grid. That podium finish of 2020 was his fifth of his career but has only been able to add one extra podium finish to that total (P3 in the 2021 Spanish GP).

Standings Constructors
1    Ducati      307 points
2    Yamaha    295 points
Standings Teams
1    Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP    364 points

2    Ducati Lenovo Team                         355 points

EXTRA
Best Pole Position Lap:    Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)     1’38.862 (167 km/h)     -    2021
Best Fastest Fap:              Alex Rins (Suzuki)                    1’39.450 (166 km/h)    -    2021