Race 1
It was Alvaro Carpe's first Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race but the 15-year-old Spaniard fought his more experienced fellow countryman Angel Piqueras for the win all the way to the last lap.16-year-old Piqueras just found a touch extra to win the first race of season 17 by 0.673 second over Carpe with Rico Salmela, the 15-year-old Finn taking an excellent 3rd less than 2 seconds further back at the Portimao finish line.
It was much more than a two KTM race with a host of early leaders including South African 16-year-old Ruché Moodley and Malaysian 15-year-old Hakim Danish enjoying his first Rookies Cup race.
Race 2
Angel Piqueras took an incredible second Red Bull MotoGP™ Rookies Cup win by just 0.002 seconds over fellow Spaniard Marcos Ruda in a blanket Portimao finish. Malaysian Hakim Danish was 0.015 seconds back in third 0.001 ahead of Ireland's Casey O'Gorman.
Saturday's winner Piqueras was only 4th through the final flat-out downhill left-hander but the 16-year-old pulled out of the 3 KTM slipstream to flash across the line a tyre's width ahead.
Ruda led through that final turn but the 18-year-old had 15-year-old O'Gorman on his tail and looking the likely winner after a fabulous 14 laps.
By half distance, Màximo Quiles had broken away into a one-second lead that no one could close. The 15-year-old Spaniard then slid off with just 4 laps to go and could only remount and finish 11th. He had been pushed out of Race 1 on Saturday.