It’s been a long time – nearly 20 months – since MotoGP last visited the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal, more commonly known as Portimao since the premier class first raced there in 2020.
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For Miguel Oliveira – the only Portuguese rider ever to make it to MotoGP – that long time hasn’t been a particularly good one, with the 30-year-old five-time MotoGP winner likely to be riding his final world championship laps in the next 10 days.
Rewind to when MotoGP last visited the spectacular, undulating 15-corner track in March 2024 as round two of the 20-round season, Oliveira was the leader of the brand-new American-owned Trackhouse Racing Aprilia team, and had plenty to be optimistic about as he finished eighth in his home Grand Prix for a team getting its world championship feet wet.
From there – with occasional bursts of strong results – it’s been a slow, often painful path to MotoGP’s exit turnstile.
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In Indonesia last September, Oliveira crashed heavily in practice when his bike’s electronic control unit glitched and flung him over the handlebars, a nasty fall seeing him break his right wrist and sidelining him for five of the final six rounds of the year.
It was the latest misfortune for a rider considered to be arguably the grid’s unluckiest, after Oliveira had missed four rounds in 2023 from myriad injuries caused by accidents with Marc Marquez (in Portugal), Fabio Quartararo (Spain) and Aleix Espargaro (Qatar) that saw all three rivals penalised.
Oliveira signed a two-year deal with the new Pramac Racing/Yamaha alliance alongside Australia’s Jack Miller, but that too went south when he was taken out of the sprint race in Argentina in round two this season by Ducati rookie Fermin Aldeguer, dislocating his left shoulder and missing four rounds.
By the time he came back, the foundations beneath his feet had shifted.
Miller’s form – strong in the early part of the season as the Australian fought for his future – saw Oliveira shuffled back to fourth in the standings of the four Yamaha riders behind Quartararo, Miller and Alex Rins.
When Yamaha signed World Superbikes star Toprak Razgatlioglu for 2026 – and with the factory having a break clause in Oliveira’s contract that could be used if he trailed the three other Yamahas in the points table – Yamaha had five riders, four seats, and one obvious solution.
Once Miller was re-signed for 2026 ahead of the Catalan Grand Prix in September, Oliveira’s time at Yamaha – and perhaps MotoGP, where he’s raced since 2019 – was done. He swiftly did a World Superbikes deal with BMW – effectively a seat swap with Razgatlioglu – for next season, and may yet hang around in MotoGP as a test rider for Aprilia.
For now, though, this weekend’s home race that’s only on the calendar in the first place because of Oliveira’s presence might be his last.
Portimao debuted in MotoGP as the series scrambled for available tracks to complete its covid-affected 2020 season, and Oliveira won handsomely – in front of empty grandstands – in the season finale.
With Superbikes racing at Portimao – and Estoril, 300 kilometres north and on the outskirts of Lisbon – next season, it’s not goodbye at home for good for Oliveira this weekend. But a farewell for now? It’s one he’s come to terms with.
“It’s not a retirement kind of feeling, it doesn’t feel like a goodbye completely,” Oliveira said in Thursday’s pre-event press conference in Portimao.
“I don’t know if that’s unrealistic from my side or not, but it’s just how it feels. I don’t think I should look at it with resentment or any kind of regret because I know that I gave my best, I did the best possible to stay and the best was not enough.
“I don’t even know how to explain the emotions, because it’s not an end but it’s probably the last time I’ll race a MotoGP there. It adds a special feeling to it.”
‘Special’ is an adjective often used to describe Portimao, which produces some of the most jaw-dropping TV images of the season and sees bikes completely airborne as they traverse the rises and falls over the 4.59km lap, the 16-metre drop from Turn 11 to 12 as the bikes swoop left down the hill not a place for the feint of heart.
It’s a one-of-one circuit that’s more like a motocross track paved with asphalt than a Grand Prix layout, and one that provides a stern challenge for the riders and an additional storyline for a season where the world champion, the runner-up and rookie of the year have all been decided before the final two rounds of MotoGP’s longest-ever campaign, the 2025 season coming to a close in Valencia in a week’s time.
Here’s your Insider’s Guide to round 21 of the MotoGP season, with the 25-lap Portuguese Grand Prix set for 12am (AEDT) on Monday after the 12-lap sprint race at 2am Sunday (AEDT).
Oliveira’s seven-season MotoGP career looks set for its final laps in Portugal and Valencia in the next 10 days. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)Source: AFP
SHORT-TERM PAIN EXPLAINABLE FOR YAMAHA: MILLER
Jack Miller is accepting of Yamaha’s decision to push forward with its new V4-engined project for 2026 even if that has pumped the brakes on the progress of this year’s bike, with the Australian, Rins and Oliveira all languishing towards the back-end of the world championship standings.
Miller, 18th in the points table with just 68 points, is on track for his worst season across a number of metrics since his 2015 rookie campaign with Honda, but understands Yamaha’s decision to direct its focus, finances and energies towards the V4 engine project that’s set to replace the inline-four configuration for next season, with test rider Augusto Fernandez racing the nascent V4 in recent rounds at Misano and Sepang to gather data for what shapes up as a crucial off-season for the Japanese manufacturer.
PIT TALK PODCAST: Renita and Matt preview this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix, assess the fight for third in the championship between Marco Bezzecchi, Francesco Bagnaia and Pedro Acosta, and ponder the 2027 rider market and Fabio Quartararo’s future with Yamaha. Listen to Pit Talk below.
Yamaha’s lead rider, 2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo, is ninth in the championship standings and has achieved five pole positions against the run of play this season, but has just one Grand Prix podium (second in Spain in round five) to his name, Yamaha’s sole visit to a Grand Prix rostrum all year.
Asked on Thursday for his take on Yamaha’s development path this season, Miller said the factory has had to prioritise longer-term gains at the potential expense of results in the present.
“To ask them to develop more than what they already are is almost an impossible feat,” Miller said of Yamaha.
“They’re in the process of developing a whole new motorcycle so unfortunately we’ve paid the price on that this season in terms of development on the current bike, but they understood that from the get-go. That was the whole idea of the new project. The issues that we have with the current project were not getting solved, so it takes a sharp turn like they’ve done with the V4.
“Once we have more [V4] bikes on track, we’ll be able to push that development a little bit more forward. In terms of a brand-new project, there’s not much more you can ask for.
“They’ve been busting their arse to get four [V4] bikes ready for us to ride in Valencia come [the test on] Tuesday [after the final race of the season] to be able to get that feedback that is obviously so crucial for the winter time.
“To have that project ready in that space of time with setbacks and so on, it would have been feasibly impossible for Yamaha or any other manufacturer to be developing [the existing] bike as well, the amount of manpower that you would need to do that would be impossible.”
Miller has a strong record at Portimao; the 30-year-old has never qualified outside of the top five in Portugal in six attempts, has two podiums (second in 2020, third in 2021) to his name and had his best weekend of 2024 at the up-and-down track, qualifying and finishing fifth in both the sprint and Grand Prix for KTM.
He feels the characteristics of the track can help mitigate some of the weaknesses of Yamaha’s machine relative to the opposition.
“It’s a track where I feel you can mask some of the issues with the bike, especially the issues we’re having – we have a bike that’s pretty solid in the front end, doesn’t wheelie too much and turns really well, so if we can get it to do the right things that it does well, I believe we can be somewhat competitive this weekend,” he said.
“Our weight distribution is a lot more over the front than the other bikes so for a place like this, it works well. From my past experience around here, you can mask a bike’s issues.”
Miller ran at the front in both the sprint and Grand Prix in Portugal a year ago, finishing in the top five twice for KTM. (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
RUSHING MARQUEZ RETURN TOO RISKY, SAYS DOCTOR
MotoGP’s medical director Dr Angel Charte says Marc Marquez would have “jeopardised his career” by attempting to rush back from right shoulder surgery following his accident at the Indonesian Grand Prix in October.
Marquez, who won his seventh MotoGP title at the Japanese Grand Prix in late September, was taken out on lap one of the Grand Prix in Mandalika by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, and underwent right shoulder surgery in Madrid early in October, an operation that required his right arm be “completely immobilised” for a month afterwards.
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The 32-year-old, who won 11 Grands Prix and 14 sprints from 36 starts in 2025, won’t ride a MotoGP bike until 2026 pre-season testing in Malaysia at the earliest; speaking to Spanish newspaper AS, Charte said the risks of Marquez coming back in a 2025 season he’s already won – and the ramifications of a further setback – were not worth it.
“Emotionally, he’s doing great because he’s done his homework,” Charte said of Marquez, who will attend the final round of 2025 in Valencia next weekend.
“In his case, coming back earlier would have been risking it for nothing, and that’s not worth it. He would have jeopardised his career by returning prematurely.”
In the same AS interview, Charte confirmed that Marquez’s right humerus – operated on four times after his Jerez 2020 crash that ruled him out for the rest of that season and ruined the next three years – wasn’t impacted by his spill in Indonesia, save for some cleaning up while he went under the knife.
“The previous injury hasn’t been affected at all, they only saw there was a bent screw in the humerus and that was repaired as well,” he said.
“The coracoid (shoulder blade) has its history. It may seem like nothing, but it’s an important bone.
“It’s not that it’s more or less serious, but rather that the recovery has to be done more calmly. The stance he has taken is the right one … [Marquez] has done what he had to do.”
Marquez won’t throw his leg over a MotoGP bike until next February at the earliest after his season-ending shoulder surgery. (Photo by SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP)Source: AFP
SUPERBIKES STAR GETS EARLY START ON 2026
A former Valentino Rossi protégé who flamed out on the road to MotoGP gets a belated big break this weekend in Portugal, with Nicolo Bulega deputising for Marquez at Ducati ahead of a more prominent role with the Italian factory team next season.
Bulega, 26, was a fast-rising star when he entered the Moto3 category in 2015, taking a pole position and podium within five races before he departed the world championship paddock after two poor Moto2 seasons in 2021.
Riding for Ducati in the Supersport World Championship and then World Superbikes, the Italian has emerged as the main challenger to Razgatlioglu in the production-bike series across the past two seasons, winning 20 races and finishing as runner-up to the MotoGP-bound Turkish rider in both campaigns.
World Superbikes runner-up Nicolo Bulega gets a belated MotoGP call-up this weekend for Ducati in place of Marquez. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Bulega will combine his World Superbikes season with a role as Ducati’s MotoGP tester next year, his experience with the Pirelli tyres used in Superbikes likely to be invaluable as MotoGP prepares to switch from Michelin to Pirelli rubber as part of the 850cc regulation revolution set for 2027.
The lanky Bulega tested a MotoGP bike for the first time at Jerez in Spain after the Malaysian Grand Prix in late October, and will race alongside Francesco Bagnaia for the 2025 teams world champion in Portimao and Valencia.
Bulega is the third rider to replace an injured regular in Portugal, with Pol Espargaro deputising for Maverick Vinales at Tech3 KTM for the third successive round, and Lorenzo Savadori again stepping in for 2024 world champion Jorge Martin at Aprilia.
Both Vinales (left shoulder) and Martin (right collarbone) are aiming to be fit for Valencia in a week’s time, the final round of the season preceding the one-day test on November 18 that effectively acts as day one of the 2026 pre-season.