Can Bagnaia break Marc Marquez’s 2014 record?

It was a thrilling super Saturday at the Grande Premio Tissot de Portugal with Aprilia Racing’s Maverick Viñales taking his first victory with the Italian manufacturer. Meanwhile, with Francesco Bagnaia showing his pace in the early stages of the Sprint it leaves many questions left unanswered. So have a look below at 10 mind-blowing facts that you should know ahead of the Portuguese GP.

1- Enea Bastianini has qualified on pole position for the second time in MotoGP™ along with Austria in 2022. He finished P6 in the Sprint, as he did last time out in Qatar, but he will now be aiming to take his sixth MotoGP™ win.

2- Following Bagnaia (Malaysia/2023), Marini (Qatar/2023), Viñales (Valencia/2023) and Martin (Qatar/2024), Bastianini is the fifth different polesitter in the last five MotoGP™ races. This is the first time that has happened since the final race of 2022 (Martin) and the opening four races of 2023 (Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez, Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro).

3- This is the first Pole for Bastianini since 2022 at the Austrian GP and he is the sixth different polesitter at this circuit in the six races that have been held at Portimao.

4- Second here last year, Maverick Viñales qualified second and then took his maiden Sprint win, ending a sequence of nine Ducati wins in Sprint. He is in the running to make history on Sunday by taking a MotoGP GP win with a third different factory. Jack Miller and Alex Rins could also achieve this feat.

5- Jorge Martin finished P3 in the Sprint and is the only rider on the podium in both of the opening two Sprints. He will now aim to take his sixth MotoGP™ GP win. He has scored points only once on his four previous visits to the track in the class, with P7 in the Algarve GP in 2021.

6- Reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Bagnaia qualified fourth, making it the first time he failed to qualify within the top three in two successive MotoGP™ races since Malaysia/Valencia 2022. He finished P4 in the Sprint after leading from Lap two to Lap eight but then running wide into the first corner on Lap nine. He will now aim to become the first reigning Champion to win the opening two MotoGP™ races of the season since Marc Marquez did in 2014.

7- Miller has qualified fifth for the second successive time in Portimao. He finished P5 in the Sprint and, like Viñales and Rins, could make MotoGP™ history on Sunday by taking a MotoGP™ win with a third different factory.

8- After passing through Q1, rookie Pedro Acosta has qualified seventh, which is his best qualifying result in the class so far, and finished P7 in the Sprint, which is his best Sprint result so far. Aged 19 years and 304 days old, he will be aiming to become the youngest rider to win in the premier class, taking the record from Marc Marquez (20 years and 63 days old in Austin in 2013).

9- On pole in Portugal last year, Marquez, who crashed in Q2, eventually qualified eighth as the fifth Ducati rider….