Miller endures nightmare start in Qatar | 00:59Francesco Bagnaia leads the 2024 MotoGP world championship arriving in Portugal for the second round of the season, but his expected title rivals are poised to punch back.
The challenge will be greater at the Portimão roller-coaster, however. It’s a wildly different circuit to the flat and floodlit Losail, and riders won’t have the benefit of having had two days of preseason testing to lean on.WILL QUARTARARO LOSE PATIENCE WITH YAMAHA?The story of the last two seasons has been his intensifying disappointment with Yamaha’s haphazard and inconsistent progress.
The proclamation comes less than a week after Motosprint reported that Aprilia is interested in buying the 2021 champion, with Aleix Espargaró set to turn 35 next year and Maverick Viñales yet to reach his potential on the RS-GP. Ducati has been on the front foot in the rider market this season, first by locking down reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia on a long term deal and now by pre-emptively promoting Fermin Aldeguer to the premier class for 2025.
With 18 riders still without a contract and the market tipped to largely resolve itself in the next few months — long before the midseason break — there’ll be plenty of riders suddenly feeling the heat just one race into the campaign.Marc Márquez’s Ducati switch was overshadowed in Qatar by the first superb performance of Pedro Acosta in the premier class but cannot be discounted.
But on a year-old Ducati he’ll need to be operating at a very high level to contend for the championship. This weekend will give us a clearer picture of whether he’s getting close to that threshold.