The premier class’ first ride on the rollercoaster of Portimao gave us over an hour of nice wheelie shots out of turn 8 and a pretty tight field until the late time attack that not everyone joined. Although there was no one in the stands to greet him, home hero Miguel Oliveira grabbed top spot at the checkered flag by four hundredths of a second to make a dream start to his home race. Maverick Vinales spent quite a bit of time at the top throughout FP1 but settled for second, while Aleix Espargaro put his experience from the test to good use to join the top three. Teammate Lorenzo Savadori also did an excellent job to add another Aprilia in fourth position, less than two tenths of a second off top spot.

Pol Espargaro was the lead KTM in fifth place, ahead of the lead Honda of Cal Crutchlow and newly crowned world champion Joan Mir, who was seven tenths off the lead. Fabio Quartararo was another of the early leaders of the session but the Frenchman wasn’t tempted by the late time attack and dropped to eighth, while the Honda duo of Takaaki Nakagami and Stefan Bradl completed the top ten.

Alex Rins and Andrea Dovizoso were the final riders to set a time within a second of the leader, while Jack Miller lost ground after topping the session very early on and dropped to 16th spot.

Results: