Author: David Bodapati

The Italian claims a fifth pole in a row with a new lap record, and Mir a first ever MotoGP top three

Portimao, 6 Nov 2021: For a fifth time in succession, Ducati Lenovo Team’s Francesco Bagnaia is on pole position! The Italian set a new lap record at the Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve with a 1:38.725 to beat teammate Jack Miller to the top by just 0.104. Bagnaia homes in on Casey Stoner’s seven in a row for Ducati in 2007-2008, and he becomes the first Italian to take five pole in a row since Valentino Rossi from the 2003 Malaysian GP to the 2004 Spanish GP. 2020 World Champion Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar), meanwhile, also had a good day at the office as he took his first ever top three in MotoGP™ qualifying. He’s started from the front row before, but via a penalty for another rider. 

Q1
A thrilling Q1 saw home hero Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) hoping to give the Portuguese crowd something to cheer about, but it wasn’t to be for the 2020 Portimão race winner this time around as he missed out. Ultimately, Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) left it late to snatch P1 away from Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM Factory Racing), and with that the Ducati and KTM duo headed into the pole position battle.

Q2
Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing), shadowing Bagnaia, struck with the first fastest lap of Q2 with a 1:39.264, but the Spaniard’s time would be beaten by both Mir and Miller soon after. The Australian’s 1:38.836 was the first new all-time lap record of the session. A Luca Marini (Sky VR46 Avintia) crash in the final sector then brought out the yellow flags, although it was newly-crowned Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) more affected, a P3 lap time cancelled.

The riders then boxed for fresh rubber as Miller sat on provisional pole from Mir and Martin, with Pecco was P4. What was in store in the final four minutes of the penultimate Q2 of 2021?

Bagnaia was the first to set a flying lap as the riders re-emerged from pitlane, and the Italian went P1 with a new lap record. The goalposts were moved by another 0.061 as the Bologna bullets went head-to-head for Portimão pole position.

Pecco then stretched his advantage to 0.111 on his next lap, and Miller could only manage to cut the gap to 0.104. Was that it done and dusted, or could Quartararo find an answer? 

A red Sector 2 came in from the Frenchman but ultimately nothing came of the Champion’s lap; El Diablo forced to settle for P7 as Pecco notched up his fifth Saturday P1 in a row. Quartararo did, however, wrap up the BW M Award regardless.

There was a little spice as Mir got held up slightly by Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol), but the Suzuki rider still takes his first Saturday top three… and the number 73 went to apologise.

The Grid 
Behind the Ducati 1-2 and Mir in third, Rookie of the Year contender Martin returns to the circuit where he suffered his huge crash earlier in the season and takes an impressive fourth, edging out teammate Zarco by thousandths as the Frenchman nevertheless came through Q1 to grab a second row start in P5. Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) took sixth, 0.333s down on pole.

Quartararo is in slightly unfamiliar territory on Row 3, the 2021 Champion cut a more muted figure back in the box after finishing 0.4 away from Pecco in Q2. Alex Marquez, despite his small Mir moment, bagged his best MotoGP™ Q2 result in P8. Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) lines up alongside Quartararo and Marquez in ninth.

Lecuona is another who has impressed this weekend and his efforts in Q1 and Q2 see the WorldSBK-bound rider start P10, just ahead of Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Marini.

The penultimate race of the 2021 season is now very much on the horizon, and it’s Ducati who enjoyed Saturday the most. Can Quartararo and Yamaha claw their way back through the pack on Sunday afternoon in their pursuit of the triple crown? Tune into the premier class race at 13:00 local time (GMT), with the MotoGP™ riders heading out before Moto2™ this weekend.

FULL RESULTS

MotoGP Front Row:

1 Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team – Ducati – 1’38.725
2 Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team – Ducati – +0.104
3 Joan Mir – Team Suzuki Ecstar – Suzuki – +0.168

Top Independent Team rider
4 Jorge Martin – Pramac Racing – Ducati – +0.191

The two-time MotoGP World Champion and Legend himself sits down for a Press Conference in Portugal

Algarve, 5 Nov 2021: MotoGP Legend Casey Stoner is back in the house! The Australian is attending the Grande Premio Brembo do Algarve and on Friday, he sat down for a one-off Press Conference to answer a few questions from the media.

Here are some key quotes before the questions from the floor. To watch the whole Press Conference, head to the following link on motogp.com.

Why now?
Casey Stoner: “It’s been a strange. It’s been three and a half years! I believe it was Mugello 2018 the last time I was in the paddock. So it’s been far too long. You know, this was my whole world, I suppose. For a lot of years, everyone we knew… everything. And a lot of people, you know, in this paddock are family and friends, so it’s, it’s been far too long. And you know, we’ve missed everyone to be honest. So yeah, it’s been fantastic. We tried to come over last year, we had plans. And then of course, COVID hit, but it was fantastic MotoGP was able to run at all.

“Then this year, of course, everybody learned how to get through the situation a bit better. And Australia just recently opened up so we thought we’d come over and try and, you know, talk to some people one on one, and, and make some connections again that I suppose lost over the last few years.”

Thoughts on 2021?
CS27: “It’s been incredibly interesting. You know, in terms of diversity of brands on the podium and riders and everything, it’s kind of, you know, day by day, weekend by weekend, it’s plucking the podium out of a hat, there’s sort no form guide, I suppose. over the last two years. But especially this year, when people that you’re expecting to be at the front all of a sudden they’re struggling, and then other people you really didn’t expect to be there will go off and disappear and win a race.

“So it was difficult and almost a little confusing to to watch it this year, just to see some of the results that were happening. And like I said it was it was very unexpected. So in terms of, you know, watching it, it was fantastic. I’d personally like to see a little more consistency from some riders, but at the same time, I guess the current format gives some riders that generally maybe wouldn’t be at the front, some confidence over certain weekends to then go and achieve something that you know in the past wouldn’t be possible.”

Are Ducati on the brink of taking a World Championship again?
CS27: “For a long time now they’ve been close to having, you know, the complete package and getting the job done. But unfortunately, you know, it’s again, which Ducati rider is going to be fast on which weekend. We need to see a little bit more consistency, maybe a bike that  is going to suit all the tracks. We’ve always had that issue, all the manufacturers have good tracks and bad tracks. But yeah, certain styles and certain circuits that does seem to struggle with. So they just need to create a little bit more consistency and a little bit, let’s say, easier package at certain times. But they’ve always been very, very close.

“I think you know, if everything sort of swings their way yes, they can win a Championship. But when you’ve got Yamaha that’s producing a great package year after year and I mean what a year Yamaha has had across a whole lot of different forms of motorsport this year. So they’re constantly putting out a package that is very, very difficult to beat. You’ve got Marquez that when you know he’s fit and healthy, on the Honda. They’re very difficult to beat. So, you know, it makes it tough for them. It’s not just throw some bikes out on track with a rider on it, you need that whole package to work together. And that can sometimes be difficult.”

Does he get itchy feet since retirement?
CS27: “The only times I’d have it is probably around qualifying. I quite honestly didn’t ever enjoy race day that much. Sometimes it was nice and easy and everything went well. But it was so… you know, when you’re on the edge of these things, it’s so easy to make those mistakes. So I constantly had that, unfortunately, it was just part of my personality that I didn’t want to make mistakes. It’s not that I just wanted to go out there and ride, you know, comfortably and naturally, it was like, ‘I don’t want to mess up’. Because I’ve got a whole team of people that are expecting something out of me. So I learned to deal with that better in my later years and didn’t have to worry about that as much. But I don’t really get the wish or want to race again.

“I did enjoy practice and qualifying, especially on the weekends. Certainly not testing. But Practice and Qualifying was always fun when everything would come together. And then you just got to go as hard as fast as you possibly could for a lap or two. When you got everything right, I got way more of a thrill out of that than I ever did winning a race. Because in the races, you never went as hard as you could, you always had to manage tyres, fuel… you’re always managing the situation, and you look like a fool if you go and try and go as hard as you can and crash. So there was always a an element of holding back, whereas qualifying a lot of the time you got to let loose. And you know, that was a lot of fun.”

On Valentino Rossi and their rivalry:
CS27: “If Valentino was still loving his racing, then, you know, there’s, there’s no reason not to race. I myself wouldn’t be able to do it. Because you know, for me, racing was winning. I still accepted the fact that I couldn’t win sometimes, but at the same time, the reason I got up in the morning to race was to win. And so I really would struggle to not be running competitively at the front, and I’ve missed Valentino at the front. I think the last, you know, two, three years, I would have loved to seen him battling it out with the guys. I think the racing could have been incredible with that. Like it was in the season before.

“You know, me and Valentino have had some amazing battles, we had a fantastic rivalry. Some good points and bad points, some things went my way and other things really didn’t. But there was one thing that, you know, was fantastic about racing Valentino, and it’s that I got to learn from him, whether it was on track or off the track with his media. He was always very savvy, and very clever, very cunning. So I got to learn a heck of a lot. And I think also, my achievements in my career were validated all the more having raced against him in his era.”

Algarve, 4 Nov 2021: The dust has somewhat settled after a dramatic title decider last time out, but now it’s time to get back in gear for another stunner. The Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve got underway on Thursday with the Pre-Event Press Conference, with newly-crowned 2021 MotoGP™ World Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) joined by second overall Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), Repsol Honda Team’s podium finisher Pol Espargaro, home hero Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and the leader in the battle for Rookie of the Year Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama), also fresh from the rostrum.

Here are some key quotes!

Fabio Quartararo: “My voice is still quite bad but it was super nice to celebrate with the team after Misano on Sunday and I spent a few days with my family and yeah, it was super nice! It was also tough to go back to training after a few parties but it was necessary and of course, to feel ready for the race. But of course it was a really special week after winning the title in Misano.

“Honestly I feel – I would not say pressure because I achieved my goal. I will give my best, of course I come here to fight for the victory and for the podium but it’s not something I can really control. I will give my best but we will see the final result. It would be nice to achieve the triple crown and to see if we can achieve it!”

Francesco Bagnaia: “I think that it is more because I lost the race than the Championship, because I was sure Fabio deserved that more. I was a lot of points behind and also, I was winning the race in Misano. If I had won, then I would have been like 36 points behind, and with 36 points we have a lot of possibility to win the title. In any case, I tried my all. It was not our objective to win the Championship this season because I was coming from two very difficult seasons. My first two years in MotoGP I struggled a lot. This year I learned a lot, I grew with the team and in the last part of the season I was fighting for the Championship, but I was too far behind. In any case we tried. I knew with the hard front I was more competitive, but I crashed. I tried my all and this was the only possibility to remain in the Championship fight, to win the race. And I tried.

“For sure these two races will be nice to do. Now Fabio doesn’t have any pressure. So, I would really like to fight with him, not like in Misano, but starting together and fighting together would be nice to have. They are two different tracks. In April/May I was fast here, in Valencia I’ve never been fast in my life so I have to understand how to do it.”

Pol Espargaro: “This is a place where I enjoy quite a lot and in the past year with KTM I performed and, for sure it wasn’t amazingly good but it was a decent race and I almost finished on the podium. But in the beginning of the year we came here with many many problems, we struggled a lot, I had a big crash at the last corner and I don’t have the best memories with the Honda here. Anyway I came here during the summer break to train so I have the layout fresher maybe than the others which is nice, also the bike has changed quite a lot from that moment at the beginning of the year. Honestly speaking we have more possibilities to have a great weekend than what we did at the beginning of the year, so really looking forward to jumping on the bike again after the nice vibes we took in the past weekend in Misano.

“From the past races I have been, you know, working in that direction thinking that this year is over for me. It was over a lot of races ago, I started to think about the future with Honda, we tried to do the maximum we could with the current package, thinking of next year, trying to generate or copy what we have inside the rules with next year’s bike. We had some benefits and some contrasts, we had a lot of problems in Texas and then we come to Misano and we had all the contrasts, we had the benefits with the current package thinking about next year. There are these pros and cons, thinking about next year, I’m looking to just make a reset. With all the experience and knowledge I have with Honda I sometimes feel quite comfortable and I can achieve great results, start from zero with a good base, and from there try to enjoy the bike. I haven’t enjoyed much because I’ve been struggling quite a lot. The future I think is bright but we have to work harder than the others because we start with a disadvantage.”

Miguel Oliveira: “For sure we get to a home GP with a different kind of mentality. Beginning of the season we were having too many problems and the package was not really complete. The conditions were much different from what we had in November the previous season, so definitely we didn’t have anything going our way, and now towards the end of the championship even if the result was not finished in Misano, at least I had a good connection back with the bike. Already in Texas I found a little bit more of this connection and although if the result is not there the feeling is there, so I think this is the most important thing to build a good weekend. For sure the key is to start tomorrow with this feeling, give a good feedback to the team and finish these two last races of the season on a high. 

“We have every reason to believe that we can achieve a good result. Of course, it’s always depending on a lot of things, but we know that the intention is there, and we have every reason to believe in that direction. The opponents are going to be tough of course, everyone likes this track, everyone who goes fast on it, so it’s going to be about adapting better to every situation on the track and especially during the race understanding what is a good line and the normal racing routine at the weekend.”

Enea Bastianini: “I took another podium in the last race and I am very happy about this. Now I have an advantage over Jorge Martin but he can be fast like me, especially here in Portimão, but in Valencia I’m not very fast and I have to improve in this area. In Misano we did a good job in the race but not on Saturday because I did three crashes in eight laps, I think, but we can be Rookie (of the Year) this year and we can battle for this.

“I like Portimão a lot, it’s a very strange circuit but I like, it’s one of my favourites. You know it’s not easy to be fast here, and I’m advantaged in respect to Jorge because he’s crashed in the last races but we have to stay concentrated and understand what we can do to be competitive in the weekend and also on Saturday.”