Portimao wasn't the most entertaining race, but the goings-on were critical for several teams and riders.
The Pecco/Marc clash was the biggest deal as both riders confirmed Ducati's worst fears. Bagnaia had a little chuckle about handing Martin free points in the sprint, but his team probably felt like he put their heads in a vice for Sunday's race. The pressure Baganaia put on himself and the team may have caused him to make a high risk move to take points from Marc. It didn't work out, and he erased a points haul for the factory squad and Gresini. Pecco is 32 points out of the lead after 2 rounds!
Marc also did himself no favors by confirming all of Ducati's reasons for keeping him out of their organization. Ducati is an organization built upon discretion (to put it nicely), and Marc is one of the riders who will not toe the company line. He will absolutely make a lunge at the last minute, and while this pass was relatively well executed, and he was not at-fault for the incident, imo, he was involved in a clash with the factory-riding frontrunner. That's the last place Marc wants to be is involved in a clash with a much younger world champion in the same organization.
Mav's DNF was a catastrophe. He might exhibit ebullient optimism because he showed competitive pace, but 20 points is 10% of his points haul last year. One-tenth of last year's total disappeared in an instant when the Aprilia's gearbox seized. Aleix is off to another slow start so Mav's DNF punished Aprilia quite harshly as well. Instead of gaining 7 constructor's points against KTM, they lost 8 points to KTM. Ouch. Aprilia's team standing also took a blow.
Acosta's podium was impressive, even if he needed last minute help from Vinales, but unfortunately Pedro's incredible talent is causing the motogp commentary to degrade. I'm not one to complain about commentary, but listening to grown men giggle and high-five each other is borderline grotesque. Keep it professional.
