MotoGP Race And Practice Results

The race would be twenty one laps of Estoril, the shortest track of the year, with a long grid straight. With a track temperature of 29ºC, everyone used the same rear tyre, apart from Loris Baz who opted for the SCX. Sylvain Barrier would not start after a concussion in the Superpole session. 

As Scott Redding lined up in twenty second place, Jonathan Rea nipped back into the pits after the sighting lap and was waved through by Pere Riba and he took a second sighting lap, getting another lap on his new untested bike before lining up in fifteenth place. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu took the lead from pole position ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi who charged through from the second row of the grid. Garrett Gerloff pipped Leon Haslam for third place while Jonathan Rea was in eighth place by turn one. Scott Redding clubbed his way through to fifteenth place but couldn't make any progress after the first turn. Gerloff took second place from Rinaldi as Rea climbed to seventh place to start the second lap. Razgatlioglu led Gerloff, Rinaldi, Haslam, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark, but Jonathan Rea beat both Lowes and van der Mark into the first turn, passing both of them on the brakes and parking his bike at the apex to hold fifth place. 

Behind Rea, Lowes and van der Mark swapped places a couple of times throughout the lap as Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest lap on laps two and three in the process of gapping Garrett Gerloff. Leon Haslam fell prey to Rea in the first turn of lap three, catching Michael Ruben Rinaldi and passing him into turn nine. Rea, the master of the reverse grid, took three laps to reach third place from fifteenth on the grid. Scott Redding was eleven places behind Rea.

On lap six, as Michael van der Mark set the fastest lap, a 1'37.200 in fourth place, Scott Redding pulled to the side of the track with a technical issue, handing Jonathan Rea his sixth world championship title. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu was over two seconds clear of Garrett Gerloff, Jonathan Rea and Michael van der Mark as Chaz Davies broke free from the fight for fifth place and started closing on van der Mark, leaving a race-long battle between Alex Lowes, Leon Haslam and Michael Ruben Rinaldi behind him. Michael van der Mark, close behind Gerloff and Rea, lost the front into turn seven and ended his race. Rea responded by taking second place from Gerloff, having to fight to make the pass stick as Gerloff immediately tried to recover his spot. 

At half race distance, with Toprak Razgatlioglu comfortable almost four seconds in the lead, in the battle behind the second group, chasing fifth place, three riders entered the first turn three abreast, with Leon Haslam leading Alex Lowes and Alvaro Bautista as the places settled. 

A lap later, Chaz Davies powered past Garrett Gerloff, taking third place before the corner, and a lap later played the same trick on Jonathan Rea. Rea went wide at turn six and Gerloff snuck underneath without having to even change his line, but Rea would take third place back into turn one at the start of lap thirteen. Gerloff returned the favour into lap fourteen as Davies cleared off after Razgatlioglu.

Over the next couple of laps, Razgatlioglu maintained a four second lead over Chaz Davies who was a second clear of Garrett Gerloff and Jonathan Rea. Rea, with five laps left, saw that he had over seven seconds over Alvaro Bautista and settled for the championship, coinciding the podium to the three riders in front of him. With the gap to Rea closing by half a second a lap, with only three laps left, Bautista crashed out on the left hander at turn six, with what looked like a cold tyre, Estoril having so few left-handers that keeping that side of the tyre warm is a challenge. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu lapped Loris Cresson and took the win with his front wheel hoisted at the clouds with Chaz Davies crossing the line three seconds behind him. Garrett Gerloff came in third and then there was a few seconds of pause until Jonathan Rea crossed the line to claim his sixth title in a row.

Jonathan Rea pulled up to a table and opened a box with six rings in it and put the sixth on, as his team fitted him with a championship-celebrating t-shirt and a gold helmet. He climbed back on board his Kawasaki and tried to restart it, needing to fiddle with a setting to get the starter motor to bring it back to life. He collected a big flag and headed off to the podium where Scott Redding waited at the entrance like a parent waiting for a child to come back from a party.

Rea celebrated with his team before giving Redding a hug and a friendly chat that looked like they were getting ready to continue their rivalry next year.

Razgatlioglu's celebration was tempered by Rea's championship, like a cousin using your wedding to grandiosely propose to their partner, but a win is a win and Razgatlioglu now has to make only three points on Michael van der Mark to take fourth place in the championship from him.

Results:

The final practice session for the premier class was another feather in Yamaha’s cap, with Franco Morbidelli wrestling back the lead in the closing stages of FP4, after demonstrating a fine consistent rhythm in preparation for the race. His main challenger proved to be Alex Marquez, the rookie thoroughly enjoying his time on familiar playground and briefly topping the session before settling for second, one tenth down on Morbidelli. Joan Mir was another of the contenders for top spot and the Suzuki man finished the session in third position, only three hundredths of a second behind his compatriot and with solid pace as well.

Pol Espargaro added a KTM to the mix in fourth, with Maverick Vinales joining the top five lineup, two tenths off his leading colleague and consistently quick. Bruised but not broken, Fabio Quartararo was declared fit after his painful-looking FP3 crash and the Frenchman seemed to have already put that behind him, briefly leading FP4 and ending it in sixth, with consistent pace in the low 1:49s.

Takaaki Nakagami and Cal Crutchlow added two more Hondas to the top positions, while Ducati seemed to be enjoying the warmer conditions a bit more, with Andrea Dovizioso and Jack Miller rounding out the top ten. However, Alex Rins in 11th position was only three tenths off top spot, with one second covering pretty much the entire field.

Results: 

A wave of blue bikes washed out of the pits as World Supersport qualifying opened up with the Yamahas leaving as one. Without qualifying tyres, hot laps can come at any point of the session.

Hannes Soomer crashed at turn ten just before the returning Jules Cluzel posted a 1'41.619 that held top spot until Lucas Mahias set a 1'40.637. Philipp Oettl, quickest this morning, took two tenths off Mahias's time, but Mahias truck back with a 1'40.310 to take another tenth back. Andrea Locatelli, largely absent from the top of the sheets so far this weekend, then set the fastest time of the weekend with a 1'40.214 ahead of Raffaele De Rosa who just missed out on provision pole position. 

The session calmed down for a while, but as riders started leaving the pits with seven minutes left, Raffaele De Rosa, out pretty much on his own, slapped down a 1'40.012, two tenths clear of Locatelli's fast time. Locatelli responded with a 1'39.860, but he was very close to the green line on the exit to the straight. Lucas Mahias tucked in behind Philipp Oettl as he charged to the line and set a 1'39.666. Locatelli's time was deleted for a green paint incursion, but the lap after was a thousandth of a second quicker, making the penalty moot. A lap later, Locatelli took the chequered flag, throwing down a 1'39.520 to claim pole position as the last spot of the front row was determined behind him.

Andrea Locatelli took pole position ahead of Lucas Mahias and Philipp Oettl with Raffaele De Rosa, Danny Webb and Isaac Viñales making up the second row.

Results:

With the championship able to be decided today, World Superbike qualifying at Estoril, the shortest track of the year, also has lap records up for grabs after a 27-year absence. There would be five unrelated crashes in the first half of the session.

Scott Redding crashed out on the first lap of qualifying, dejectedly limping from the gravel, with a highside at turn six as Jonathan Rea set a 1'38.192 before also crashing out with a front end crash at turn four, nicking a green scooter from Florian Marino, Marino working as a spotter for Alex Lowes, to get back to the pits. Sylvain Barrier also crashed out, his bike spitting him off at the exit of the last turn, and he was taken to the medical centre.

A red flag came out and a restart was ordered.

Alex Lowes held the fastest time, a 1'37.417, before the red flags, but Jonas Folger took it from him immediately with a 1'37.175. Garrett Gerloff posted a 1'37.065 as Loris Baz crashed into turn nine and picked up his bike. Chaz Davies took the top spot from him with a 1'37.040 as Matteo Ferrari crashed at turn three. 

At the halfway mark, Scott Redding's bike was still being fixed up as Jonathan Rea's bike was chucked in the bin and replaced by the spare parts second bike. Everyone still with a bike pitted in for the mid-session tea break and the wrappers were taken off the yellow-labelled qualifying tyres.

Chaz Davies held the top spot briefly until Leon Haslam stole it with a 1'36.856, but it was Toprak Razgatlioglu who moved the benchmark seven tenths quicker with an astounding 1'36.154 with just under two minutes left.

Jonathan Rea did not get back out, with his early time putting him in fifteenth place. Redding got his rebuilt bike out for a test in the last minute, but he didn't record a complete lap time.

Toprak Razgatlioglu got his first World Superbike pole position, ahead of Leon Haslam and a late-charging Garrett Gerloff picking up his first front row. Chaz Davies led his 2021 replacement Michael Ruben Rinaldi on the second row with Michael van der Mark filling the last spot. Scott Redding, needing three victories this weekend to keep his mathematical chances of a title alive, will start race one from twenty third place at the back of the grid.

Results: