2002 – Having won the last 500cc GP race at Estoril in 2001, Valentino Rossi (Honda) won the first of the MotoGP races held at the circuit. This was a race that was run in very wet conditions and Sete Gibernau had led for most of the race only to crash out with four laps to go.

2003 – Valentino Rossi (Honda) won in the premier-class for the third successive year at Estoril, this time from great rival Max Biaggi with Loris Capirossi making it an all-Italian podium.

2004 – Valentino Rossi continued his run of successive wins at Estoril – this time riding a Yamaha.

2005 – Alex Barros (Honda) dominated proceedings by winning the race from pole position and setting the fastest lap as well as being fastest in every practice session. This was the last time that Barros stood on the top step of the podium in Grand Prix racing.

2006 – After qualifying down in 11th place on the grid, Toni Elias scored his only MotoGP victory by just 0.002 seconds from Valentino Rossi, to equal the closest ever recorded finish in the premier-class since the introduction of electronic timing. This is the last time that a Honda rider won the MotoGP race at Estoril and it was also the last time that a rider from a satellite team has won a MotoGP race. This race was also memorable for the crash of Dani Pedrosa, which also took team-mate Nicky Hayden out of the race, who consequently lost the lead in the world championship standings.

2007 – Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) won for the fifth time at Estoril, after a great battle with Dani Pedrosa.

2008 – Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) qualified on pole and took his first MotoGP victory, in only his third race in the premier-class.

2009 – Jorge Lorenzo repeated the performance of the previous year – winning the race from pole position. Casey Stoner finished second on his return to racing after a three race break due to illness. This second place finish by Stoner is the best ever finish by a Ducati rider at Estoril.

2010 – For the third year in succession, Jorge Lorenzo won at Estoril from pole position, this time by a comfortable eight second margin from team-mate Valentino Rossi. Due to the extreme wet weather the qualifying session was abandoned and the grid positions for the race were taken from the results of the free practice sessions.