On Thursday, Franco Morbidelli mounted a stout defense of why, with first and second in the championship already wrapped up, MotoGP was not in garbage time, the last part of a competition which has been a blowout, with time still on the clock. He could have saved himself the effort if he’d had a crystal ball by simply replying, “wait for Saturday”. Because we had the best sprint race of the season, and perhaps the best ever.
If this is garbage time, we should have it more often. As a rule, the sprint races have been utterly dire affairs, a procession pretty much from the first lap. But not Portimão. The first ever sprint race was held at Portimão back in 2023, and that was a frenetic, and frankly dangerous, race. 59 sprint races later, and the format has matured. We had a grown up race that was all out for victory.
Did the best rider win? The best rider on the day, with the best setup and the best strategy won. But, as Pol Espargaro explained on Saturday evening, two of the three best riders in the world finished second and fourth. Alex Márquez won convincingly, despite being made to work very hard for it, and nearly losing out on the last lap. But Pedro Acosta fought him tooth and nail, on a bike that is clearly inferior to the Ducati GP24. And Fabio Quartararo crossed the line in fourth, 5 seconds behind Márquez, but 8 seconds ahead of the next Yamaha.
