It didn't take long for the old demons to revisit Marc Márquez in Portimao. All the great sensations experienced on Saturday were again overshadowed by a spectacular fall in which, in addition, he took ahead the local idol, a Miguel Oliveira who showed very soon that he was going to give everything to compensate for the mistake made the day before. The Portuguese, in this case, was harmed by an error in the braking of a Marc who touched Jorge Martín before colliding with the Portuguese, who momentarily unleashed the alarms when he stayed a long time hurting on the asphalt.

The incident, submitted to investigation by the judges, unleashed the ire of the local fans, who unloaded again and again all their frustration on a Marc Márquez perfectly aware of his failure. It would be useless to apologize again and again to the stands or extend his excuses to Oliveira's team. Jorge Martín, the third in discord in the incident, curiously, would also find his bones on the ground in the last laps of the race, thus leaving a bitter aftertaste for the second place achieved just the day before in the sprint race.

Marc Márquez comes to the aid of Miguel Oliveira after the impact. PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRAAFP

Also unlike what happened in the sprint race, Marc could not retain his privileged position beyond the initial moments of the race. In an outing in which none of the pilots located in the leading positions of the grid trembled their pulse, and in which he was about to go to the ground very soon, who ended up initially placing himself in the lead was, precisely, a Miguel Oliveira who would end up being terribly harmed by the miscalculation of Cervera. With both out of the race, Pecco Bagnaia, who had already been able to pass the Portuguese on the second lap, would be met with tremendous harassment by a Maverick Viñales capable of setting a great race pace, although the Italian managed to keep him more or less at bay at all times.

The reigning world champion was intractable and rounded off a virtually perfect weekend, adding 25 points more than the 12 achieved on Saturday. The speed, again, was dizzying. The fastest, Aleix Espargaro, however, would hurt him once again the poor performance he usually gets from his outings. Maverick Viñales, meanwhile, would end up signing the second place turned almost into a rara avis: the only Aprilia among a swarm of Ducatis. For now, nothing seems capable of threatening the superiority of these Italian mounts on the circuits. His speed is still his best asset. "I feel good. The work we have done has paid off. I tried hard to try to overtake the most, rushing the braking, but the rear tire was very touched. In spite of everything, I feel very happy. The goal is to fight to be at the front and we have achieved it, "said Viñáles.

Returning to the race, just behind the two outstanding pilots in the lead, Álex Márquez managed to climb for a long time to fourth position after overtaking the Australian Jack Miller and starred in a more than interesting duel for the third box of the podium with Marco Bezzechi. Both have the same Ducati model and the result of it was ultimately going to depend on their expertise at the controls. A fight in which, finally, the Italian would end up clearly imposing, who would end up rolling without the option of being overcome, but also too far from Viñales to put his second place at risk. Álex, on the other hand, would end up finally being dismounted from fourth place in a spectacular melee with Johann Zarco that would ultimately opt in favor of the Frenchman.

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