MotoGP Portuguese GP: Alex Marquez shakes off Pedro Acosta f...

Alex Marquez won a thrilling duel with Pedro Acosta to clinch the sprint race at the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Gresini Ducati rider recovered from qualifying fifth to take the win and deny front-row starter Acosta a breakthrough victory in MotoGP.

Polesitter Marco Bezzecchi was able to claim an early lead in what was a clean start to the 12-lap race, with Acosta slotting in behind the Aprilia. Marquez was already third at the first corner after a strong getaway, with Fabio Quartararo in fourth.

While Quartararo and the rest of the field dropped out of victory contention, the leading trio settled down to produce a rollicking race for the spectators at the panoramic Algarve venue.

First, Acosta moved past Bezzecchi to take the lead on the front straight as lap three began. Marquez had to wait another lap before replicating that pass on the Italian.

One lap later, Marquez made his first move on Acosta – but it would take three long and fascinating laps of the circuit before he could take a lead that would ultimately stick on lap nine.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Marquez then enjoyed a couple of laps of relative comfort before a late surge by Acosta on the last tour. Visibly struggling, Marquez was only just able to keep the GP24 ahead of the factory KTM over the final few corners.

Bezzecchi was never far behind all of this, and could easily have benefited from any incident between Marquez and Acosta. In the end, however, he would have to settle for third, crossing the line just over half a second shy of the winner.

Yamaha’s Quartararo rode a lonely race to fourth, with Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) working his way through to fifth by the end.

Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) looked to have sixth and seventh under control into the closing stages, but Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer had other ideas and got ahead of both of them during an anarchic final lap in the midfield. The Spaniard beat them to the finish line by only a fraction.

Brad Binder grabbed the last point for the factory KTM team, while Marc Marquez’s factory Ducati substitute, Nicolo Bulega, fell early in the race.