It’s a pivotal point in the MotoGP™ Fantasy season and bragging rights are on the line – who should we be looking at this weekend?
The penultimate round of the 2021 season is here and at the Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve, MotoGP™ Fantasy players have the luxury of having a race, in the same year, to have a think about who you’re backing. It’s also crunch time, so decisions in Portimao could be the difference between owning bragging rights – or being on the receiving end.
Marc Marquez to miss Algarve Grand Prix
The first thing to note is the absence of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team, $3.8m) this weekend. So, unfortunately, if you own the eight-time World Champion, then the ‘which rider to transfer out’ your team decision has been made for you. The only good news is Marquez’ price. Depending on what you have in the bank, $3.8m gives you a chance to get to most riders. The bad news is if anyone has moved for the number 93 early, then you’re in a sticky situation.
Aforementioned, the MotoGP™ circus has already tackled the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve this season, so Fantasy players have something to go off. 2021 World Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, $4.8m) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team, $4.1m) are both highly owned riders who finished 1-2 in Portimao back in April, and both are expected to go well again this weekend.
But there’s two races to go, and some players will be needing to make up some points to their friends and rivals. 2020 World Champion Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar, $3.4m) has endured a trickier than expected campaign, but the Spaniard did stand on the podium in Portimao this season.
Mir is also the fourth-highest scoring rider in MotoGP™ Fantasy this season, while the Suzuki star sits P3 in the World Championship – hardly a bad season. There’s no doubt Mir will be wanting to end 2021 on a high after conceding his title to Quartararo, so backing the number 36 this weekend looks like a decent shout before track action has begun.
Another name to ponder is Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, $3.6m). Apart from his heroics at the Austrian GP, the South African’s 2021 season has been fairly quiet. But Binder has been racking up some serious Fantasy points. He’s the third-highest points scorer behind Quartararo and Bagnaia, yet Binder isn’t in the top 10 most owned riders ahead of a return date with Portimao, a track he finished 5th at earlier this year. As differential picks go, the current bronze medallist points scorer in the game is a fantastic shout.
And what about home hero Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, $1.8m)? A podium return was well on the cards at Misano before his crash towards the end of the race, but if the Portuguese star had to choose anywhere to come to next, it would be Portimao.
Dominant winner in 2020’s curtain closer, the 2021 race was a relative disaster for Oliveira after he and KTM were struggling in the early part of the season. But Misano’s performance, forgetting the crash, was hugely promising. Oliveira is more owned than teammate Binder, but both look like strong candidates in Portimao. There’s nothing like a home race, and we all know if everything is clicking, Oliveira will be a hard man to stop on the rollercoaster.
Back the Beast… again
Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama, $2.6m) is a man in form. P6, P3, P6, P3, from qualifying results no higher than ninth on the grid, is the Italian’s last four results. His classy Sunday comeback performances have seen Bastianini accumulate 143 Fantasy points in the last five races, a tally only Quartararo and Marc Marquez can beat – and not by much.
741 players traded Bastianini in before the Emilia-Romagna GP deadline, and it’s safe to say the 2020 Moto2™ World Champion rewarded those who backed him. There will be more this weekend as long as FP1, FP2, FP3 and FP4 go smoothly for Bastianini, especially when you consider he finished P9 at the rollercoaster earlier in the season in just his third MotoGP™ race. With a Rookie of the Year title up for grabs too, Bastianini should be a rider at the top of your Fantasy wish lists.
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The Algarve GP will be Bradl’s fifth appearance of 2021, with all four of the German’s previous Grand Prix rides leading to point-scoring finishes – an 11th in Qatar his best result so far. In addition, Portimao holds fond memories for the 2011 Moto2™ World Champion, who claimed an impressive seventh place in Portugal last season.
Heading into the Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve, Acosta holds a 21-point advantage over Foggia with two races to go in 2021 – and remember, the duo went head-to-head for victory at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve earlier this season. So, here’s what the Spaniard needs to walk away from Portimao as a Grand Prix World Champion:
After a dramatic Sunday at the Emilia-Romagna GP that saw Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) crash from the lead, the Spaniard’s teammate, the World Championship leader and his title rival Remy Gardner has his first match point of the season at this weekend’s Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve.
While preparing for the Algarve Grand Prix with one of his standard off-road training sessions, Marc Marquez suffered a fall that caused a slight head concussion.
The accident happened on Saturday and after a few days of rest at home and seeing that he was still unwell, overnight Marquez has been assessed by doctors in a medical check-up to evaluate his current status.
As a precautionary measure, this coming weekend Marquez will not contest the Algarve Grand Prix.
Marquez had won the previous two rounds of the MotoGP World Championship to move up to sixth place in the MotoGP World Championship. Marquez had scored more than half of his 142 point tally in the previous three rounds, and across the last four rounds had out-scored every other rider in the series.
Ducati and Yamaha will hope not, as the Hamamatsu factory are out of the running in the Team and Constructor standings but could complicate life just ahead of them. The aforementioned 13-point lead for Monster Energy Yamaha in the Teams’ standings is a lead ahead of Ducati Lenovo Team, and Ducati have a 12-point lead in the Constructors’ over… that’s right, Yamaha. Suzuki are third in both. So there could be plenty of key players: Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team), Pramac Racing’s Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama), Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso…
Averaging 16.8 points per Grand Prix, Quartararo could be included among some illustrious names to reach the triple century if he maintains the performances and remarkable consistency shown during 2021. He would become the first rider to reach 300 since Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) in 2019, when he dominated the field to collect 12 wins and a record 420 points in 19 races. In fact, from his six premier class titles, he has only failed to breach the 300 points barrier on two occasions, in 2016 and 2017, when he fell just two points short on both occasions.
I had to smile last Sunday imagining the disbelief and then panic in press rooms, studios, and commentary boxes throughout the world when the unfortunate Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) crashed so close to the finish of the race in Misano leaving Quartararo as World Champion. We have all been there, script or copy written and ready to go at the final whistle or in this case, the chequered flag. Many times it has happened to me with a last-minute goal at a football match completely changing the whole story. On two wheels or three, I will never forget Brno in 1988. I sat with my feet on a spartan desk in the commentary box dreaming of a bottle of that pink Russian champagne you could buy at Brno for under five euros.
However, that’s no reason to not tune into every ounce of action this weekend at the Grande Prémio Brembo do Algarve, with the Constructors, Teams, Rookie of the Year and Moto2™ and Moto3™ titles up for grabs. It’s set to be another belting weekend in Portugal, with track action getting underway on Friday morning with Moto3™ (09:00 – GMT+0), MotoGP™ (09:55) and Moto2™ (10:55) FP1s, before the FP2 sessions begin at 13:15 local time.
Then, it was the Spaniard’s second win and third podium in his first three Moto3™ races, but now there’s a little more on the line as he arrives 21 points clear in a bid to become the first rookie lightweight class Champion since Loris Capirossi in 1990. And unlike Misano, where Acosta depended on Foggia’s result to be able to secure the crown, Portimão offers the Spaniard a simple equation: win the race, win the Championship. There are other combinations too of course, but a victory for Acosta in one guarantees a victory in the other regardless. Otherwise, the magic number is 26 for the rookie sensation… so just five more than Foggia.
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