Portuguese Moto3, Portimao Friday Practice | Alonso, Kelso in a different league, Ogden 8th

David Alonso picked up where he left off from Qatar as he left rivals trailing in his wake during this afternoon’s crucial Practice 1 session for the Portuguese Moto3 on a disrupted opening day of action at Portimao.

Indeed, the entry-level series would get just one session of track mileage over the course of the day after the morning’s FP1 session was scrapped due to tricky damp conditions.

Nevertheless, with Portimao having played host to Moto3’s days of pre-season testing, Alonso – who dominated the preliminaries in Portugal last month – quickly established himself as a favourite to win again this weekend. 

Indeed, the Colombian arrives on European soil as the early Moto3 points’ leader following a gritty run to a fifth career victory last time out at the Lusail International Circuit.

At one stage commanding a +1.3s advantage over the rest of the otherwise closely-matched field, though Alonso’s 1m 47.202secs would prove good enough for the end-of-day top spot, he would end up being run very closely by Joel Kelso, who strung together a scintillating lap to come up just +0.037s shy of relegating his rival.

Even so, Alonso and Kelso would command a sizeable advantage over the remainder of the field, with ‘best of the rest’ Matteo Bertelle some six tenths behind on the highest-placed of the Honda contingent.

Jose Antonio Rueda and Riccardo Rossi completed the top five on their respective Red Bull KTM Ajo and CIP Green Power Honda machinery, while Filippo Farioli made a rare appearance inside the top ten on the SIC 58 Squadra Corse Honda in sixth.

Indeed, considering the firm’s performance deficit to KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas/CFMoto at Portimao a month ago, Honda will be heartened to see four of its bikes inside the top eight, one of which comes courtesy of Scott Ogden, who made strong gains late on in the session to end the day in eighth place.

It gives the Brit a good opportunity to secure one of the top fourteen positions that will assure him a route to Q2 automatically during Saturday morning’s P2 session, though team-mate Josh Whatley will be hoping to make a step forward overnight to improve on his provisional 21st on the timesheets.

🇵🇹 🏁 2024 Portuguese Moto3, Portimao | Practice 1 Results

Friday | Conditions – Dry, Cloudy