Maverick Viñales dethroned Jorge Martin to become the second Sprint race winner of 2024. Viñales cleared the second place finished by 1 second when the checkered flag flew. The win marks the first win and second podium of the season for Aprilia Racing. “I am truly happy about this first win with Aprilia and the great job the team is doing this weekend,” he said. “I feel good on the bike. We are really in tune and I had a lot of fun in this Sprint Race. This is a very special moment for me. I closed a circle. I knew that sooner or later I would be back to winning – I had absolutely no doubt.”
The battle with Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez was sensational with Marquez getting the better of the “King of Sprints” diving down underneath in turn 5. Martin wouldn’t recover from the move and had to settle for P3 in the race. This season seems to be anyone’s championship as the top three has been mixed up for every podium thus far this season.
Francesco Bagnaia Has an Off and Loses P1
Bagnaia lost out on the podium after a mistake on the down hill into turn 1 with 9 laps to go saw him run wide and relinquish the lead of the race falling down the pecking order.
Bagnaia was able to save the bike but finished outside of the podium points. With the finish Bagnaia still retained his championship points lead by 2 points over Jorge Martin. Brad Binder sits in third despite his off in the Sprint race resulting in a DNF.
The Portugal Sprint Race Results Are Below