A lot of harmony at Yamaha – here Maverick in the arms of Valentino and a beaming Fabio behind him. In contrast to the “KTM family circus”, which is only played convulsively for the media and in which some of its members got angry last year, everything at Yamaha is real. Incidentally, this picture was taken in Losail, even before the outstanding successes of the two Monster Energy Yamaha factory riders. A little later Viñales won the season opener in Qatar.

The change from a supposed problem child to a World Cup favorite

In the hustle and bustle of Marc Marquez’s return, Portugal completely lost some very important things. We are talking about topics that are in principle much more important than the lack of improvement by Honda. Strictly speaking, despite Marc’s comeback, Honda was much less successful than at the Portuguese GP last year. At that time, his substitute driver Stefan Bradl achieved the same position and was even less behind on fourth place than the returnees. The failure of Pol Espargaró was annoying because, due to technical defects and the placement of the two LCR pilots, all in all it was significantly worse than in November 2020. Aleix Espargaró defeated the entire Honda armada and in the Aprilia both in the race and in the World Championship all KTM riders at least clearly in the intermediate ranking. And Yamaha made the hoped-for turnaround.

Shortly after the start of the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Autodromo do Algarve. World Championship leader Johann Zarco (Ducati) ahead of Alex Rins (Suzuki) – both later dropped out due to crashes. Behind him Marc Marquez (Honda), Joan Mir (Suzuki), who also crashed afterwards Jack Miller (Ducati) and behind him, Fabio Quartararo hides in front of Franco Morbidelli (both Yamaha), Brad Binder (KTM) and Aprilia spearhead Aleix Expargaró.

Despite Valentino’s crash and Maverick’s misery, Yamaha was in a state of joy
It seems grotesque to hold onto something like that. Nonetheless, this statement hits the nail on the head. Half a book has been filled with Rossi’s alleged resignation, and he’s still here. Unfortunately, in contrast to last year, this time not just one race, but the entire start of the season for the old master went wrong. However, he had not been transferred to the customer team as a designated World Cup favorite. It was a smart move that Yamaha made with it. Even if their idol missed the podium, the still countless Rossi fans can still hope to see him during the interview after crossing the finish line. To do this, he “just” has to become the best private driver. What is also interesting at Yamaha is the fact that Maverick Viñales was able to finish eleventh in Portugal, and the Monster Energy Yamaha Team still only saw happy faces.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) after his victory at Parc Fermé – the man from Nice was relieved when he was able to confirm his victory in Losail immediately afterwards in Portimão, where he had struggled with serious problems last year.
In the interim ranking of the world championship, things are still looking excellent for the two Yamaha works drivers. The next stop is the Circuito de Jerez on the track, on which they were double winners twice in a row last year.
Best team three times in a row and lonely at the top of the team standings and of course the manufacturers’ standings – at Yamaha there is really no reason to complain at the moment. Nonetheless, they must of course not underestimate Ducati and Suzuki, which they certainly will not do either.

Maverick Viñales is now under pressure – Quartararo is the clear leader
The situation in the factory team can be summed up in a few words in such a concise manner. On the alleged Ducati circuit at Losail, the two won alternately. We had already made it clear beforehand that this often heard and read formulation was absolute nonsense. A look at the statistics for victories and podiums in Qatar was enough. Meanwhile, in Losail Yamaha leads with 10 wins ahead of Ducati with half as many and Honda with three. Much more important for the brand with the crossed tuning forks in the logo, however, is the current starting position. Franco Morbidelli celebrated a more promising comeback in fourth place after the Losail debacle than Repsol Honda’s figurehead with P7. They now have the Italian as a wild card and a clear leader in Fabio Quartararo. In addition, the Catalans are currently third in the World Cup with the best prospects for improvement. Of course, you shouldn’t underestimate the Ducatis with Zarco and Bagnaia and the Suzukis, many things can change again very quickly.

Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha) in pursuit of Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) – instead of the Italian, the Catalan would have preferred to fight for top positions with his team-mate and top driver Aleix Espargaró. A more than questionable “Track Limits” decision brought the Yamaha ace away from the pole position. Nevertheless, he was expected to be significantly further ahead than on P11.

The real Yamaha miracle

But after the introduction to the absolutely perfect situation from Yamaha, there is still a claim in the title. We simply claim that Yamaha has now managed the miracle of eliminating its “Michelin weakness” after many years. At the Autodromo do Algarve, the two factory Yamahas in the previous year were simply perplexed in conditions similar to those in 2021. This time Viñales is sure even after P11, with softer tires and just a better starting position he would not have experienced an almost debacle. In the previous year, he and Fabio often did not know any explanation for their surprisingly bad exit. But this time the Yamaha worked perfectly well on the two extremely different tracks in Qatar and Portugal, and this also in the race.

Portugal Winner Fabio Quartararo (left) and “Morbido” – the two best Yamaha riders at the Autodromo do Algarve. The Italian with half Brazilian roots celebrated an impressive comeback and in this form you have to have him on the bill for the next races. It is interesting for Fabio that even his hometown Nice on his arm (see below the M1 in the picture (Ville de Nice) supports their famous son in racing as a personal sponsor. Drivers from countries like Germany can only dream of that.

Two of Yamaha’s longstanding weaknesses seem to have been eliminated
Not to forget that we heard from Maverick right after his victory in Losail (one of us understands Spanish well) when he said to his crew, “Guys, this time I was incredibly fast even on the straight, I almost couldn’t believe it ! “. That gives Yamaha courage for tracks that have often been difficult for them recently, such as Aragon and Spielberg. With this, two longstanding weaknesses of the Japanese seem to have been eliminated in one fell swoop, provided they no longer have the same top speed disadvantages as they have for years and have got their setup under control both for individual fast laps and over the distance. While at KTM it looks like they are in free fall, at Yamaha almost everything is going according to plan and for Jerez there are no signs of a trend reversal.

Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) – For a long time it looked to the old master as if it could be a conciliatory race in Portugal. But as this picture shows, things didn’t turn out well and Jerez has a new opportunity. Last year the Yamaha star had a retirement there with engine failure and then the last podium of his infinitely long and successful career as nine-time world champion, seven of them in MotoGP.

The riders’ voices after the Portuguese GP

Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – Winner: “I feel full of confidence. Because I brought the confidence I was able to take with me from the Doha GP, that’s exactly how it felt here. We now know what to do to be competitive. As long as I have a good feeling about the front, I’m fast. In today’s race I only focused on my race, but with what a pace! I really didn’t expect this before. I was only about half a second away from my qualifying round which was absolutely amazing. Of course, I also felt some pressure from Alex Rins behind me. I wanted to open a loophole, but then he made a mistake. I drove well and easily and was still able to keep a distance from Pecco, so I was absolutely happy. We did a great job! On Saturday we were the first in all sessions, and we won the race. That’s why I would like to thank my team above all. These are important points, and now we are going to one of my favorite playgrounds, in Jerez. I can’t wait to go there. This has been a wonderful way to start my birthday celebrations soon after the GP. “

Franco Morbidelli – PETRONAS Yamaha SRT – P4: “I’m very happy to finish fourth, and it’s been a great weekend for us. The race was excellent, and I was able to fight my way through at the beginning. After that, my rhythm and pace was good enough to stay there and fight for a podium. That surprised me a little, and I’m proud that we did it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough potential to fully attack, but I’m still very happy with this result. It’s a good supply of energy after the two races in Qatar, the feeling with the bike is back, and now we just have to enjoy this moment. Let’s see what happens in Jerez!”

Alex Marquez (LCR Honda) in front of Luca Marini (Sky Racing Avintia Ducati) and his half-brother Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) – while the Spaniard finished eighth, the young man in the middle scored his first World Championship points with P12 as a MotoGP Rookie.

Maverick Viñales – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP – P11 “I’m not sure yet what went wrong, but something was definitely wrong. My lap times were very slow. I couldn’t do anything from the first lap. It’s a shame because it wasn’t the result I was expecting. It’s kind of strange that after winning in Qatar and starting in first place this weekend, we didn’t make it into the top 10 of the race. But you always have ups and downs, this is life. We now have time to analyze the situation. Of course, we have to change something to make our results more consistent. But after that we’re going to Jerez which is a good track for us, so I’ll just focus on that and forget about this race.“

Valentino Rossi – PETRONAS Yamaha SRT – NC (crash): „It was better today because we improved some settings on the bike and used the hard rear tires which made me feel better. My pace was much better than on Saturday, but unfortunately when you start from behind it’s always difficult. I lost a bit of time in the first corner, but after that I thought I could make it into the top ten. Unfortunately, I lost the front at Turn 11, it’s a pretty demanding corner on the front tire and my race was over. It’s a shame because we could have scored some good points today, but we know we’ve made improvements” (The editorial team: It was exactly the curve in which Johann Zarco had landed in the gravel bed, but which was partly due to a transmission problem).

Schedule and TV program Jerez Grand Prix

At the time of our publication there was another bug on the official MotoGP site and the Q1 of Moto2 was given as a duration of 25 minutes, which is of course wrong. This has of course already been corrected in our timetable.

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).