Quartararo Finishes Seventh at 2024 MotoGP Portugal

Following the season kickoff in Qatar, Team ENEOS utilized strong defense to shine at the 2024 Grande Prémio de Portugal, with Fabio Quartararo finishing in seventh place to earn nine points. Teammate Álex Rins pushed to earn his first three points of the season with a 13th place finish.

Starting from P9 on the grid, Quartararo held his position on the opening lap and found himself riding mostly by himself the first 10 laps as the top group split up. With seven laps remaining, Miguel Oliveira and Marco Bezzecchi initiated a battle against El Diablo, pushing him back to P10. With three laps left, Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez crashed out, and on the last lap the race also ended early for Maverick Viñales, allowing Quartararo to finish in P7 at the checkered flag, 20.130sec from first.

“I expected to finish a bit closer to the front pack, but we have good data to analyze,” Quartararo said. “There are lots of small things that we need to improve on, but we’re on the right path and need to be patient.”

Rins had a good start from P11, slotting behind Quartararo after the opening corners. However, the Spaniard couldn’t hold onto his teammate and began defending his position while also struggling with the front tire, gradually falling back to P16. With several late crashes, Rins climbed back to finish 13th, 31.334sec from the race leader, scoring his first points of the season for Team ENEOS.

“This was a hard race but it’s nice to have my first points with Yamaha,” said Rins. “I had similar problems to those I had in Qatar, so we need to do something different with the bike. We’ll need to focus more on finding and understanding the right setup.”

Following the 2024 Portugal GP, Quartararo is 11th in the overall standings with 15 points, while Rins is 18th with 3 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP is eighth in the team championship, and Yamaha is fourth in the manufacturer championship with 15 points.