Submitted by Zara Daniela on
The premier class’ first ride on the rollercoaster of Portimao gave us over an hour of nice wheelie shots out of turn 8 and a pretty tight field until the late time attack that not everyone joined. Although there was no one in the stands to greet him, home hero Miguel Oliveira grabbed top spot at the checkered flag by four hundredths of a second to make a dream start to his home race. Maverick Vinales spent quite a bit of time at the top throughout FP1 but settled for second, while Aleix Espargaro put his experience from the test to good use to join the top three. Teammate Lorenzo Savadori also did an excellent job to add another Aprilia in fourth position, less than two tenths of a second off top spot.
Pol Espargaro was the lead KTM in fifth place, ahead of the lead Honda of Cal Crutchlow and newly crowned world champion Joan Mir, who was seven tenths off the lead. Fabio Quartararo was another of the early leaders of the session but the Frenchman wasn’t tempted by the late time attack and dropped to eighth, while the Honda duo of Takaaki Nakagami and Stefan Bradl completed the top ten.
Alex Rins and Andrea Dovizoso were the final riders to set a time within a second of the leader, while Jack Miller lost ground after topping the session very early on and dropped to 16th spot.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Prev |
| 1 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | KTM | 1'40.122 | ||
| 2 | 12 | Maverick Viñales | Yamaha | 1'40.162 | 0.040 | 0.040 |
| 3 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'40.236 | 0.114 | 0.074 |
| 4 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 1'40.297 | 0.175 | 0.061 |
| 5 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | 1'40.680 | 0.558 | 0.383 |
| 6 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'40.695 | 0.573 | 0.015 |
| 7 | 36 | Joan Mir | Suzuki | 1'40.856 | 0.734 | 0.161 |
| 8 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | 1'40.877 | 0.755 | 0.021 |
| 9 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Honda | 1'40.878 | 0.756 | 0.001 |
| 10 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | Honda | 1'40.920 | 0.798 | 0.042 |
| 11 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 1'40.960 | 0.838 | 0.040 |
| 12 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'40.961 | 0.839 | 0.001 |
| 13 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Yamaha | 1'41.167 | 1.045 | 0.206 |
| 14 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Ducati | 1'41.181 | 1.059 | 0.014 |
| 15 | 73 | Alex Marquez | Honda | 1'41.228 | 1.106 | 0.047 |
| 16 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 1'41.271 | 1.149 | 0.043 |
| 17 | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 1'41.433 | 1.311 | 0.162 |
| 18 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'41.928 | 1.806 | 0.495 |
| 19 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'41.946 | 1.824 | 0.018 |
| 20 | 33 | Brad Binder | KTM | 1'42.082 | 1.960 | 0.136 |
| 21 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Ducati | 1'43.154 | 3.032 | 1.072 |
| 22 | 82 | Mika Kallio | KTM | 1'43.910 | 3.788 | 0.756 |
Comments
lead KTM ?
are you saying Tech3 doesn't run real KTM's ? or have they also rebranded to GASGAS ?
Savadori surprise
Yes I know it is only FP1 and yes, Savadori tested here recently as one of the few riders with a MotoGP bike, but still! He only has two races under his belt and was more than three seconds off the pace until very recently. He actually seems to be making progress, more so than Smith did, it seems. It'll be interesting to see if he can keep this up. I for sure did not expect him to do so well, especially as such a late stand-in. The idea of letting him get some race experience made sense, and now it really seems to work out, this will definitely make him a better testrider for the coming season. Nice surprise.
Parabéns Miguel Oliveira
Parabéns Miguel Oliveira, bom dia. That's all the Portugese I know.
Go get em Miguel Oliveira! I would really like to see Tech3 get another win. Particularly for Hervé Poncharal & Guy Coulon.
Let's assume Zara meant Pol was the first Factory KTM, shall we?