Marc Márquez is like Mortadelo. He has a costume for every occasion. In the qualifying session of the Portuguese GP, the first of the MotoGP World Championship, he dressed as a pickpocket and stole pole position from Pecco Bagnaia. Surprisingly, the driver from Cervera, who was last among the 12 chosen for Q2, scored the first starting position for the two races, the short one (Sprint, at 4:00 p.m. today, Saturday), and the long one, on Sunday (3:00 p.m.).
Márquez is definitely the smartest in the class. Knowing that he does not have enough speed, that his Honda RC213V is not enough, he sought the most effective strategy: grab a fast motorcycle, the fastest, the official red Ducati.
Marc was last, 12th, in the last two minutes of the session. Pecco Bagnaia dominated with a stratospheric 1m37s290, so Marc aborted his penultimate lap and went looking for the fastest wheel: Enea Bastianini, Bagnaia's fellow-rival. He grabbed his tail, followed in its wake and took one last superb turn, in 1m37s226, that is, 64 thousandths better than the champion's, while The Beast was sixth.
Márquez, in fact, reached the classification with a mediocre time, 14th, 7 tenths behind Miller. So he had to go through Q1 to qualify among the top 12 to opt for pole. In that playoff he dominated with a track record (1m37s675) and passed, along with Miguel Oliveira. Then, in Q2, he wandered through the last positions, 7 tenths behind Miller and Bagnaia, who led the session. Until he resorted to the tailgating trick, which gives such good results.
Marc Márquez will be accompanied in the first row at the start of Portimao -for the two races- by Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín. In the second row are Oliveira, Miller and Bastianini. Viñales starts seventh, Quartararo 11th, and Aleix Espargaró, 12th. Àlex Márquez will start 13th, Joan Mir 14th, Alex Rins 16th, Augusto Fernández 19th and Raúl Fernández, 20th.
