Portuguese GP – Portuguese GP Qualifying: at home, Oliveira propels his Tech3 KTM to pole! – Used KTM

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Portuguese GP Qualifiers: at home, Oliveira propels his Tech3 KTM to pole !

Portuguese GP - Portuguese GP Qualifying: at home, Oliveira propels his Tech3 KTM to pole! - Used KTM

Surprise and sublime winner of the Styrian Grand Prix this summer, Miguel Oliveira signs in Portimao the first pole position of a Portuguese in MotoGP. The n ° 88 driver of the Tech3 KTM team is ahead of Morbidelli, Miller, Crutchlow, Quartararo, Bradl (!) And Zarco. Report.

Removed from the Top 10 after three free practice sessions of this first Portuguese Grand Prix – on the Portimao track … -, big names are participating in Q1: the 2020 champion Mir, the three-time winner 2020 Morbidelli, the excellent "beginners" Binder and Marquez, the excellent "veterans" Crutchlow and Rossi…

  • GP of Portugal:
  • MNC file :

In the end, the two tickets to join the top riders in Q2 are contested by three riders: the pre-retired – future Yamaha test rider in fact – Cal Crutchlow is perhaps taking advantage of his past experience in World Supersport and Superbike to get ahead of d ‘a breath (26 thousandths of a second) Franco Morbidelli !

Ahead of the first sectors, Brad Binder made the suspense last until the very end but finally had to bow for only a tenth of a second. The South African rider will post his n ° 33 KTM tomorrow at the top of the fifth row, ahead of the n ° 41 Aprilia of Espargaro (Aleix) and the n ° 63 Ducati of Bagnaia.

Three different factory machines will occupy the sixth place: the reigning Moto2 champion Alex Marquez on his Honda n ° 73, the nine-time motorcycle Grand Prix champion Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha n ° 46 and the Italian Superstock 1000 champion Danilo Petrucci.

A grid – partially – reversed for the 2020 final ?

You have to go down to the middle of the seventh row to finally find the MotoGP 2020 champion: Joan Mir on his Suzuki n ° 36 turned slower than Lorenzo Savadori (replacing Smith who replaced Iannone) on Aprilia n ° 32. .. He is ahead of only two pilots: Rabat and Kallio (replacing Lcuona).

On the strength of their warm-up in Q1, Crutchlow and Morbidelli managed to stay at the forefront in Q2! From the first outing, Franco Morbidelli posted the reference time. But the guy improves it 3 minutes from the end! In his wake, Bradl and Crutchlow reach virtually the front row…

Definitely very fit this afternoon, the Italian-Brazilian rider and his Yamaha satellite n ° 21 were the first to pass under 1 ’39. Miller and his private Ducati n ° 43 took second place a few moments later. Then Oliveira on the handlebars of her KTM Tech3 beats the record time of "Franky" !

Supported by an entire country – despite the total absence of the public because of the second wave of Covid-19 -, the Portuguese pilot sets a new absolute track record for a two-wheeler by covering the 4,592 meters of this incredible circuit in 1 ‘38.892 seconds. For comparison, the WSBK record set by champion Rea is 1 ‘40.372 seconds…

For his last race at the controls of his Honda LCR n ° 35, Cal Crutchlow took a magnificent fourth place, just ahead of our compatriot Fabio Quartararo, a great specialist in fast laps who also won the keys to the BMW M2 promised to the best qualifying driver.

First factory driver on the starting grid tomorrow, Stefan Bradl – who has replaced Marc Marquez since the third GP this season – has been able to capitalize on his runs ahead of the Portuguese GP as a test driver. Despite the two 70-minute (!) Free sessions on Friday, the other official drivers failed to beat the German No.6.

Seventh in this final 2020 qualification, Johann Zarco has come a long way: this afternoon, the n ° 5 of the Avintia Ducati team had not been able to complete the FP4, again betrayed by the V4 Ducati. In the middle of Q2 then, our two-time Moto2 champion fell in turn 8, particularly vicious because blind and on a slope … MNC wishes him a less eventful Sunday !

Another blind and sloping turn to be wary of: number 4, perverse enough to trap the fast but inconsistent Takaaki Nakagami twice today. The second crash not only cut the Japanese pilot’s FP4 short, it earned him a visibly painful left hand and a disappointing 11th place on the grid, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso.

The last driver to panic the partial at the very end of the qualifying session, Pol Espargaro only obtained a ninth time and will start between two compatriots and colleagues: the official KTM driver n ° 44 is supervised by Maverick Vinales on the first Yam d ‘ factory (!) and Alex Rins on the first factory Suzuki as well (!!).

Portimao: MotoGP title race … manufacturer !

As a reminder, if the title "driver" and "team" are already awarded to Joan Mir and Team Suzuki Ecstar, the "constructor" championship will oppose Suzuki to Ducati tomorrow who share the same number of points (201) and must therefore be ahead of the other to win !

Penalized for its unapproved valves, Yamaha does not accumulate 238 but 188 points on the eve of the 2020 final. To crown the world crown, the Iwata firm will have to place a maximum of M1 (two, three?) In front of the Desmosedici and GSX -RR … or even enjoy great races of RC16 and RCV ?!

Another fight to watch tomorrow afternoon, that for second place in the Drivers’ World Championship: Morbidelli (142 points) and Rins (138) are the two big favorites, but Vinales (127), Quartararo and Dovizioso (125) no will not give up before the end.

Still in the running mathematically and best time in FP4, Pol Espargaro (122 points) will not give up either. Especially since the Spanish n ° 44 is competing this Sunday in his last race within the official KTM team and would like to add his name to the impressive list of winning drivers this not-so-funny 2020 season….

Portuguese GP: the starting grid

Provisional MotoGP classification before the Portuguese GP

  1. Joan MIR Suzuki SPA 171 points
  2. Franco MORBIDELLI Yamaha ITA 142 points
  3. Alex RINS Suzuki SPA 138 points
  4. Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha SPA 127 points
  5. Fabio QUARTARARO Yamaha FRA 125 points
  6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 125 points
  7. Pol ESPARGARO KTM SPA 122 points
  8. Jack MILLER Ducati AUS 112 points
  9. Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda JPN 105 points
  10. Miguel OLIVEIRA KTM POR 100 points
  11. Brad BINDER KTM RSA 87 points
  12. Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati ITA 78 points
  13. Johann ZARCO Ducati FRA 71 points
  14. Alex MARQUEZ Honda SPA 67 points
  15. Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 62 points
  16. Francesco BAGNAIA Ducati ITA 47 points
  17. Aleix ESPARGARO Aprilia SPA 34 points
  18. Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda GBR 29 points
  19. Iker LECUONA KTM SPA 27 points
  20. Stefan BRADL Honda GER 18 points
  21. Bradley SMITH Aprilia GBR 12 points
  22. Tito RABAT Ducati SPA 10 points
  23. Michele PIRRO Ducati ITA 4 points
  24. Lorenzo SAVADORI Aprilia ITA 

Provisional rankings for manufacturers and MotoGP teams 

Portuguese GP - Portuguese GP Qualifying: at home, Oliveira propels his Tech3 KTM to pole! - Used KTM

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