On the last day of qualifying in the 2020 season, at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Stefan Bradl managed to qualify on the second row of the grid for the Portuguese Grand Prix. He finished Q2 in sixth position. Repsol Honda teammate Álex Márquez will start from sixteenth, from the sixth row, at the last race of the year.
Bradl went directly into Q2 thanks to his tenth position in FP3 in the morning. The German then had a great Q2 in which he finished sixth, with a best time of 1:39.204. Just 3 tenths off pole, he earned his best grid spot of the year.
Repsol Honda teammate Márquez did not make the Q2 cut, finishing Q1 in sixth place through a fastest lap of 1:40.049. He will be 16th on the grid at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Tomorrow’s final MotoGP race of the season will take place at 2pm local time.
Portuguese GP 2020 – Rider statements
“It was a difficult Quali, I tried to get a bit of slipstream to improve but couldn’t find it. On the last lap I really went for it, but I found a bit of traffic, this is just how it is sometimes. Free Practice 4 was good for us and we found more of a direction to follow for the tyres for the race but we need to do a bit of work in Warm Up to be sure. The goal is to enjoy the race and recovery as many positions as possible.”
“Coming straight into Q2 was great, we have been close a couple of times this year and it was a good accomplishment to enter the top ten. Once we were in the session, I was able to be relaxed because we had already achieved something important so we were really able to push. I’m very happy with my lap and all the work the Repsol Honda Team has done. Our race pace is also looking quite good, let’s have a good final race and see what happens. We have so far put together a great weekend, a good way to end the year.”