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After another weekend of MotoGP high drama at the Red Bull Ring, something we’ve very much become accustomed to, it was Pecco Bagnaia who rewrote the history books by becoming only the second Italian and the second Ducati rider to ever win three races in a row, leading from start to finish and never putting a foot wrong to position himself back into championship contention.
Behind him, title leader Fabio Quartararo delivered an unexpectedly strong race of his own to dispatch Bagnaia’s Ducati tail gunner Jack Miller in the closing moments, limiting the championship damage and taking even more points off a struggling Aleix Espargaro, who could only manage sixth on the Aprilia.
Plenty to talk about as usual, with lots of the grid not doing anywhere near as good – and giving us plenty to talk about as we rate their weekend performances.
Our MotoGP ranking system is simple: the riders who we believe performed the best in every race are at the top, and the ones who underperformed are at the bottom and scored appropriately.
It isn’t just about the end result though, with pre-race expectation and form going into a race and a weekend heavily influencing their eventual score, not just the points they scored every Sunday afternoon.
Fabio Quartararo – 9.5
Started: 5th Finished: 2nd
The sort of races where championships are won. No one expected Fabio Quartararo to be capable of too much at the Austrian GP given how weak the Yamaha has traditionally been seen at the Red Bull Ring, but he once again proved that he’s simply on another level when it comes to talent with a performance that significantly limits the damage of Bagnaia’s win.
Pecco Bagnaia – 9
Started: 2nd Finished: 1st
Another tactical masterclass from Bagnaia – the Ducati rider made sure to get out in front early on and from that point onwards was able to control the pace and ensure that he wasn’t threatened by anyone but team-mate Jack Miller, who was never really going to pose a significant threat.
Perhaps a few more laps would have presented him with a Quartararo-shaped challenge, but it wasn’t to be and the Italian made it three in a row.
Luca Marini – 8
Started: 13th Finished: 4th
If ever there was proof that Luca Marini is getting closer and closer to a maiden MotoGP podium then his race on Sunday was definitely it. Looking fast but not quite delivering on it earlier in the weekend, he was unfortunate to miss out on a Q2 spot – but in the end was able to produce an impressive ride that showed once again just how underrated he is.
Jack Miller – 7.5
Started: 3rd Finished: 3rd
On one hand, Miller was able to play the role of tail gunner to Bagnaia to perfection for most of the race, sitting on his teammate’s tail and keeping him safe – the ‘Goose to Pecco’s Maverick’ as he described himself afterwards. But he did manage to let Fabio Quartararo sneak through, something that Bagnaia could have done without.
Fabio Di Giannantonio – 7
Started: 10th Finished: 11th
Another solid weekend from one of Ducati’s cohort of rookies, with a path to Q2, a good starting position and a solid race result to show for it.
Continuing his upward trend in recent races at a circuit he’s really not that fond of, it’s something that bodes well for the next round at home in Misano, and is the perfect result to build off.
Alex Rins – 7
Started: 11th Finished: 8th
Given how strong the Suzuki has been at the Red Bull Ring in the past, it’s not unfair to have expected a little more from Rins, but the Suzuki rider found himself completely unable to overtake, especially against the Ducatis – and the result was slow progress through the field from a rather mediocre starting position.
Marco Bezzecchi – 7
Started: 20th Finished: 9th
You’ve got to think that Bezzechi’s race would have been a lot better if he didn’t mess up qualifying by crashing – but he made up for it with a strong ride through the pack on Sunday.
Going with a harder tyre option than those around him was maybe a mistake as it meant he got left behind a little in the early laps, but that’s a rookie error he’s allowed to make, and he made up for it by recovering well.
Alex Marquez – 6.5
Started: 25th Finished: 14th
Given how tough a weekend that the Red Bull Ring was for Honda, Marquez deserves his fair share of credit for being the only of its four riders to actually score some points.
The damage was done in qualifying with his crash, and – with him making up an impressive 11 places = it’s hard to see what more he could have done.
Johann Zarco – 6.5
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
Your standard issue Zarco race, one of many identical performances we’ve seen in the past. Starting out relatively slowly, riding an anonymous race and then somehow being right there to pick up some decent points at the chequered flag, it wasn’t spectacular for him but it also wasn’t a bad weekend at all.
Andrea Dovizioso – 6
Started: 19th Finished: 15th
Making his usual bad start and going backwards off the line, at least in his penultimate race, Dovizioso was able to recover something by managing to find the same pace he was running all weekend.
But, while that was good enough for better, the damage was done as soon as the lights went out.
Brad Binder – 6
Started: 12th Finished: 7th
As Brad Binder weekends go, starting 12th and finishing seventh is pretty textbook stuff. Not making his usual strong start and getting boxed in early on stopped his charge almost before it had started, but in the face of KTM’s overall performance issues with traction on corner exit, it was never going to be much better for him anyway.
Aleix Espargaro – 5.5
Started: 9th Finished: 6th
It’s hard to exactly quantify Aleix Espargaro’s result, given that he was expecting a tough time at the Red Bull Ring and ended up happy overall with his result.
The problem with that, of course, is that it didn’t come in isolation – and championship rival Fabio Quartararo (also expecting a tough race) ended up on the podium.
You can’t have bogey tracks if you want to fight for title contention, and while he limited the damage somewhat with sixth, it might well prove to be an important race for the title fight.
Franco Morbidelli – 5
Started: 16th Finished: DNF
It is slowly but steadily becoming clear that things are in fact improving for Morbidelli on the Yamaha, and his pace during not just the race but the whole weekend at the Red Bull Ring backed that up.
Strong up until the point where he fell off, it’s a sign of improvement that will hopefully deliver something for him before the year is out.
Enea Bastianini – 5
Started: 1st Finished: DNF
It’s obviously hard to predict with too much certainty what would have happened had Bastianini finished Sunday’s race, but given how strong he normally is in the latter stages of races, it’s fair to say he would have been in the mix.
However, his DNF (caused by a dented rim) was something of his own making, striking a kerb with the wheel, and that detracts somewhat from any speculation.
Lorenzo Savadori – 5
Started: 24th Finished: 19th
A customary Savadori wildcard, one where he managed to gather valuable data for the team over the course of an entire race, stayed on the bike when plenty of others didn’t, and wasn’t that far off the pace of the leaders at all. Nothing terribly exciting, but also not a disappointment.
Darryn Binder – 4.5
Started: 21st Finished: DNF
Plenty of people made mistakes on Sunday, but at a circuit as tricky as the Red Bull Ring, it’s easier to forgive when you’re a rookie. It seemed like Darryn Binder was on track for one of his best performances of the year – but was left disappointed after tucking the front at T13.
Stefan Bradl – 4.5
Started: 18th Finished: 17th
A bad start and an average race, there’s not much else to be said about another pointless expedition for Bradl on the Repsol Honda filling in for Marc Marquez. Now at the point where there isn’t even anything new for him to test, it very much seems like his role as a seat-filler may well be jeopardising the team’s 2023 plans as well.
Maverick Vinales – 4
Started: 7th Finished: 13th
There was definitely more on the table for Vinales at the Red Bull Ring, but he didn’t manage to find it, after going the wrong way with tyre choice and finding himself with nothing more to give halfway into the race.
From that point on, it was damage limitation – but the positive is that he at least thinks he learned a lot from the experience of going backwards.
Miguel Oliveira – 4
Started: 17th Finished: 12th
Quick to blame his rear tyre for his problems in the race, it felt a little bit like MotoGP’s most relied-upon excuse was being rolled out on Sunday by Oliveira after getting conclusively beaten again by team-mate Binder.
It was a weekend a long way removed from his incredible 2020 win at KTM’s home race.
Raul Fernandez – 4
Started: 23rd Finished: 18th
With his KTM future (or rather, lack thereof) cemented over the weekend, it very much felt afterwards like another case of just getting through it for Fernandez. He admitted afterwards that he had expected more given his good warm-up pace but it wasn’t to be.
Remy Gardner – 3
Started: 22nd Finished: 20th
It felt like there was a chance for Gardner to do something, if not quite special, then at least decent at the Red Bull Ring, especially relative to KTM’s other machines – but an unforced error that saw him crash ended any hopes of that.
It’s a shame on a weekend where a good result could really have helped make the case for his KTM future.
Pol Espargaro – 3
Started: 15th Finished: 16th
It’s starting to feel like Pol Espargaro, now confirmed as returning to KTM for 2023, is just seeing out his time at Honda on a difficult-to-ride bike. The only one of the RC213V riders to go backward not forwards in Sunday’s race, he put that down to arm pump problems along with Honda’s usual woes of rear traction for accelerating out of the Red Bull Ring’s slow corners.
Taka Nakagami – 2
Started: 14th Finished: DNF
Another weekend where Nakagami’s MotoGP (or lack thereof) was cemented in place, with a crash that we didn’t get to see taking him out of the race on the same day as Honda’s Moto2 rider Ai Ogura converted pole position into a win.
Sure, it was a tough weekend for Honda, but with Nakagami’s LCR team-mate Marquez delivering at least some kind of result, it doesn’t make the Japanese rider look good.
Jorge Martin – 1
Started: 4th Finished: 10th
In the battle for Ducati’s final factory seat next year, you’ve got to think that Martin’s actions might have just tipped the balance even further in favour of Bastianini.
Not just because of the crash out of what could have been a podium finish and not just because the crash came while sticking an aggressive lunge on another Ducati (Miller, the guy whose seat he’s fighting for), but also because the race was textbook Martin: fast at the start, fading, then desperately trying to cling on until a mistake.
Joan Mir – 1
Started: 8th Finished: DNF
Six crashes so far in 2022 just isn’t good enough for a rider who won a title on consistency – and Sunday’s fall was a completely unforced error when the 2020 champion managed to highside himself on a cold tyre on the opening lap of the race, suffering a fractured ankle as a result.
He should know better than to make a rookie error like this, and it highlights just how badly things are going at Suzuki as we edge closer to the brand’s departure date from the sport.
