Fabio Quartararo has taken over as the new championship leader following his second consecutive w❀in of the 2021 MotoGP season at Portimao. 

After an intense few laps which saw Alex Rins give everything to challenge the Yamaha rider, Quartararo ultimately claimed a comfortable victory at the Algarve Circuit ahead of F♔rancesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir. 

Although Quartararo started from pole, the 21 year-old initially had to fight 🅠his way back fr❀om sixth place at the end of lap one following a poor start. 

But after three laps, Quartararo was already back inside the pod꧟ium places and applied pressure on Alex Rins and Za🎐rco. 

Zarco said after qualifying that if Quar꧅tararo was ahead of him that he thought he could go with his countryman at the front, but once Quartararo made his way through and into the lead, only Rins could follow the Yamaha. 

The pair started to𒐪 slowly gap Zarco who was involved in a tussle for third with Joan Mir, who made an impressive start from ninth up to fourth by turnꦓ four. 

Once Quartararo and Rins increased the gap out front, the pace was becoming more and more relentless, with 1m 39.4s laps being churned out -⛄ much faster than anticipated following FP4. 

But as a sꦉhowdown for the lead looked to 🔜be on the cards heading into the final five laps, Rins lost the front at turn four, giving Quartararo a comfortable win. 

Bagnaia came home second for Ducati who saw both Jack Miller and Johann Zarco crash out. Following a lengthy battle with Mir for much of the race, Zarco crashed out at turn 10 whilst third behind Bagnai🌌a who had just taken second from the Pramac rider. 

Mir tried his best on the final lap to challenge Bagnaia, 💛but h𒅌ad to settle for third with Franco Morbidelli just behind in fourth. 

One of the surprises oꦆf the race was KTM rider Brad Binder who came across the line with an impressive fifth place.

Binder made a good start from ninth and spent much of the race on the outskirts of the top five, but due to crashes in front of him, the Sout📖h African profited for his best finish of the year. 

Sixth was Aleix Espargaro for Aprilia as he matched his b𒁏est result from the opening Qatar race. 

Seventh was Marc Marquez who produced a brilliant ride on his MotoGP 🌄return. The eight-time world champion made a good star🍃t from sixth and was as high as third place on the opening lap. 

With the fitness of Marquez a big question mark heading into the 25 lap race, the Spani♐sh rider seemed to cope well as he held onto the front group for much of the race.

It was only in the final few laps did he lose ground on Espargaro ahead of him, however, Marquez had a commanding gap back to his𝔍 brother Alex Marquez.&♈nbsp;

The LCR Honda man finished nearly five second down on the Repsol Hond♍a rider, while Enea Bastianini and Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top ten. 

Last of the Honda’s was Pol Espargaro w🐈ho onlꦿy completed five laps before coming down pit lane to retire from the race.