Alex Marquez led Pecco Bagnaia in second practice at the penultimate round of the 2025 MotoGP season, the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao.
Marquez, whose 2025 champion brother Marc is absent through injury, is known for his affinity for the Portimao circuit and demonstrated it clearly by completing a Friday clean sweep, having also topped the opening session.
While he was at the sharp end through the day, fellow Ducati rider Bagnaia had been quiet in first practice but improved right away in the afternoon, though needed a big last-second lap to end up in second place.
Pedro Acosta was once again the KTM standout in third, followed by the lead Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi and the Honda pair of Joan Mir and Johann Zarco.
There were also top-10 spots for Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati), Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati), Pol Espargaro (Tech3 KTM) and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia).
Espargaro, the injury stand-in for Maverick Vinales, had a strong day but also benefitted from using Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo as a reference during his fastest lap. Quartararo was the best of the Yamahas, but none looked all that close to scoring a top-10 spot.
Advancing to Q2: Marquez, Bagnaia, Acosta, Bezzecchi, Mir, Zarco, Di Giannantonio, Aldeguer, Espargaro, Ogura
Will contest Q1: Marini, Morbidelli, Quartararo, Binder, Fernandez, Miller, Bulega, Rins, Bastianini, Chantra, Savadori, Oliveira
Luca Marini had his first solo MotoGP crash of the season (having previously only crashed in contact with Espargaro) early in the session, then ended up on the wrong end of the Q1 cut-off in 11th.
His fellow VR46 protege Franco Morbidelli had also had an early crash, and also didn't quite recover enough in the end, half a tenth back in 12th.
While rookie Ogura snuck into the top 10, his Trackhouse team-mate Raul Fernandez came up short in his bid - but at least managed to complete the day, having been in hospital earlier after a fast opening practice crash that left him with what has been described as right humerus trauma.
Ducati's stand-in debutant Nicolo Bulega came down to earth a little relative to his superb FP1, but still punched well above expectations, placing 17th in the end, a second off the pace.
It was a deeply disappointing Friday for local hero Miguel Oliveira, potentially in his second-to-last race weekend as a MotoGP full-timer, as he wound up last - six places down on Pramac Yamaha team-mate Jack Miller, whose bid for Q2 was compromised by a Turn 5 crash.
