Photographing the Portuguese MotoGP round at Portimão

Report by David Harbey Images by Michael Wincott and David Harbey

20 Apr 2023

As a chap of a certain age, value for money is important. Thus, when I realised that we had a British Airways companion flight expiring in mid-March, I thought it would be rude not to use it. A city break in Vienna was briefly considered (might be chilly) but we fancied some sunshine so looked at the Algarve.

I always check out what motorsport is on locally and, no word of a lie, only then discovered that the opening round of the 2023 MotoGP season was on at Portimão. Flights were booked, accommodation sourced, race tickets purchased.

Portimão is not a new circuit to us. Back in 2018, an autumn break coincided (but it was no coincidence that time) with a round of the European Le Mans Series. As is generally the case for ELMS races, entrance was free with a small charge to access the grid walk. For the race we walked the track and, for a modern track, it is remarkably good. Compared to Abu Dhabi or Bahrain, it is glorious.

I’d travelled light, camera wise, on that occasion but determined to return to Portimão with a longer length zoom, at least!  We booked grandstand seats to cover off any wet days; I’d seen 2022 photos with a distinctly damp track, but the broad aim was to walk the track Friday and Saturday taking photos and then watch the racing from our seats on Sunday.

I’d heard from time to time of events, not just motorsport, restricting access with “long” lenses; we not going to debate that here, but suffice to say the ticket restricted us to maximum 200mm focal length. Apparently, that wasn’t just the case in the main grandstand; for MotoGP; it also appeared to apply to the open seating around the track (it does seem to vary by event).

So, that’s the 70-200mm zoom (no small lens in itself) and the 1.7x teleconverter in the bag. Worse, for MotoGP, we discovered that we were restricted to the grandstand and could not walk the track – even on Friday or Saturday. Creativity would be required.

The beauty of the Main Grandstand upper tier is that you can see 70% of the roller coaster that is Portimão and can pretty much follow the action. There were two screens above the pits but they are not especially “giant”. Perhaps slightly ironically, I needed the telephoto lens to read the graphics on the screen.

You could, though, see the action in the pits – we were opposite the Ducati garages. The roof provides shade through the day – it was warm but not hot when we were there in late March - but in the height of summer, I suspect it would be much more welcome.

The final practicality was parking. We had dropped by on Thursday and discovered that we could park behind the grandstand for all three days for a reasonable fee. This was as opposed to parking further out and walking or catching the shuttle bus. Getting in was OK, with short moving queues.

Getting out, from any car park, was a much slower business with the need to watch out for bikes filling any gap, however small, as soon as it appeared.

So, what about the on-track action ?  The MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 sessions were clearly scheduled in the MotoGP app and live timing was available within the confines of the circuit. There was no mention of Red Bull Rookies, but they were there and with some searching on the internet we managed to establish when they would be running.

Friday was all free practice so a good chance to get used to the view and some sitting down panning practice – as the day wore on the numbers in the stand reduced and it was possible to stand at the back or move around.

With the very long start / finish straight, speeds were topping 200mph for the top class and it was panning all the way.

The view across to the pit garages was something I was very unused to at my usual haunts, especially with no fence in the way.

We were towards the tail end of the grid. It was very apparent who the local hero was … Miguel Oliveira was very much the focus of attention. No less so was Marc Marquez after he took out Oliveira – every appearance on the giant screens was greeted with loud whistles from the partisan crowd in the grandstand.

I mentioned the roof of the grandstand and the welcome shade it would provide. As the afternoon wore on, the shadow on the track increased. Initially that was somewhat disappointing, but in time a narrow band of light appeared on the track from the design of the grandstand. That brought some interesting images!

Whilst the podium for the Sprint race was held on the track with medals presented – apparently they are not Grand Prix races - the podium for the main races was at the start of the pit lane so we walked up the grandstand to get a slightly better angle.

At the end of Saturday’s action, we were walking past the merchandise stands and there was suddenly an orange commotion. Brad Binder and Jack Miller had arrived to sign autographs and meet the fans. Jack here supping an appropriate beverage.

Another view

At BSB Silverstone a couple of weeks later I met Michael Wincott, a fellow PistonClick photographer. He had accreditation for the MotoGP weekend at Portimão – that means he got to walk miles and I got to sit in the grandstand … mind you, he captured some superb images a selection of which we are pleased to showcase below.

Would I return to Portimão for a race meeting with my camera ? Yes, but I’d check very carefully what access I had. There was talk of the 200mm lens limit at the WEC races last weekend, WSBK grandstand tickets appear to allow you to go to other areas, but not vice versa, etc, etc.

There’s a PistonClick Circuit Guide in preparation based on this and my ELMS visit; if you have more recent experience around the track as a spectator photographer please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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