The title may be decided but new champion Fabio Quartararo and ne🐽arest rival Francesco Bagnaia were once again the class of the field during opening practice♕ for the Algarve MotoGP at Portimao.

Jack Miller made it two factory Ducatis in the top three, followed by the Suzukis of Alex Rins and Joan Mir. Rookie Luca Marini was an impressive sixth as Pol Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Franco Morbidelli also made strong starts to 🀅the weekend.

Marc Marquez, winner of 🦄the past two MotoGP rounds, is missing the event after still feeling 'unwell' several da🌟ys after sustaining a 'slight concussion' while training on an off-road bike. Marquez is replaced by test rider Stefan Bradl.

The ✃hard front tyre option has been changed from the disliked asymmetric ꧟version selected for April's Portimao round, to a symmetric hard compound.

Home star Oliveira, winner of last November's inaugural Portimao race while using a symmetric hard front, was one of those to struggled badly with the revised tyre allocation in April, when Quartararo dominated the race from Bagnaia and Mir.

Although Quartararo has already wrapped uওp the 2021 riders' title, with Bagnaia and Mir on course for second and third, Ducati and Yamaha remain locked in a close battle for victory in the teams' and constructors' championships.

* Rookie