With wet conditions for most of the weekend leading into Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, it seemed like we were in for a somewhat unpredictable outcome.
It didn’t quite pan out that way: Friday’s fastest man in the dry Aleix Espargaro charged through to set himself up for a spectacular last-lap win against reigning MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia.
The chaos came behind the leading pack, with multiple collisions and contacts, disasters for some of the series’ biggest names, and a real mixed bag of results highlighted by Aprilia’s best-ever weekend in the premier class and one of the worst ever for grand prix racing’s Japanese factories.
That, of course, means lots of metrics to use to rank the grid on performances in this weekend’s rider ratings.
Scoring the grid in order based on their performances not just in the main event but also Saturday’s sprint race, it’s obviously all subjective – but comes not just from their final race result but takes into account things like the machinery they’re on and the pre-race expectations from them.
1 Aleix Espargaro
Started: 12th Sprint: 5th Race: 1st
Silverstone delivered the perfect storm for Espargaro: a circuit that he loves, a place where the Aprilia RS-GP goes well, and, thanks to the British weather, limited track time.
The result was his second premier-class victory, coming with a brave last-lap overtake on championship leader Bagnaia.
It took clever and careful riding to set up, and while Espargaro might have had lots of cards to play, he still had to be ready to gamble in order to win big.
His best MotoGP race yet by a long way.
2 Miguel Oliveira
Started: 16th Sprint: 10th Race: 4th
It’s been a tough season so far for Miguel Oliveira, who lined up fully fit at the British race for essentially the first time this season, thanks to the injuries he’s been nursing through no fault of his own and multiple collisions with rivals.
Despite that relative lack of track time through the year, he was able to capitalise on a strong weekend for Aprilia, and while he might have missed out on the podium there are bragging rights attached to his defeat of factory rider Maverick Vinales.
3 Augusto Fernandez
Started: 5th Sprint: 8th Race: 11th
Tech3 Gas Gas rider Augusto Fernandez is under a fair bit of pressure right now as he looks to secure a future at the KTM group despite his ride being essentially promised to Pedro Acosta for next year.
As such, the reigning Moto2 champion’s Silverstone weekend was an important reminder to his bosses about just how talented he is, with three strong results in the weekend’s most important sessions.
4 Alex Marquez
Started: 3rd Sprint: 1st Race: DNF
Alex Marquez’s first really strong result of 2023 has felt like it’s been coming for a while, but the Gresini Ducati rider has been dogged with bad luck all season long.
That finally went away on Saturday afternoon just long enough for the double world champion to shine in conditions he loves, steering his way home to his first ever premier-class victory on a damp but not yet dry track.
His bad luck returned on Sunday with a technical problem ending his race, but now that the cross is off his back, it could be the start of a real run of form.
5 Raul Fernandez
Started: 20th Sprint: 19th Race: 10th
There have been lots of rumours recently in the MotoGP paddock about RNF Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez’s future even despite his contract for next year, and he desperately needed a good result just to silence some of those critics and cement his place.
He did that in fine style at Silverstone, making sure that he didn’t miss out on the Aprilia party by completing a first: all four of its bikes in the top 10.
Hopefully it’s the start of a run of form that brings back some of his absent confidence.
6 Pecco Bagnaia
Started: 4th Sprint: 14th Race: 2nd
Given the smart race he rode on Sunday, it’s more Saturday’s performances that means Bagnaia isn’t higher on this weekend’s ratings.
In the main race, he did the wise thing of pushing as hard as he was comfortable with in tricky conditions before settling for safe points.
But a champion of his calibre shouldn’t still be having a complete nightmare result in the wet, and finishing the sprint far outside the points should be raising red flags about where the all-conquering combination of Bagnaia and Ducati still has room for improvement.
7 Maverick Vinales
Started: 8th Sprint: 3rd Race: 5th
There’s plenty from Silverstone to be happy about for Vinales, including a return to the top three on Saturday in conditions that a few years ago would have left him struggling, and then a solid points haul on Sunday.
But you get the distinct impression that the real takeaway for him will instead be that he wasn’t even second Aprilia in the final Sunday classification, defeated as he was by satellite rider Olivera.
His even bigger concern, though, could be what’s possible from Oliveira in the remainder of 2023 now that the Portuguese is finally fully fit.
8 Franco Morbidelli
Started: 11th Sprint: 15th Race: 14th
It was a tough weekend all round for the series’ Japanese bikes, and really the only one of the six on the grid that managed to show some flashes of brilliance was Franco Morbidelli’s – a situation made all the more incredible by the fact that he came into the weekend freshly sacked by Yamaha’s factory effort.
He was quick in qualifying, steady in the sprint and looked set for a great top 10 in the main race until what sounded suspiciously like a bad front tyre (something riders are forbidden from talking about).
Pitting to swap to wets didn’t pay off – but Morbidelli’s pace was still there on show.
9 Brad Binder
Started: 10th Sprint: 9th Race: 3rd
It almost seems unfair to stick Brad Binder so far down the ratings, but that’s not necessarily the fault of the South African after a decent weekend.
But, with conditions very much in Binder territory, with a damp track in both races that called for brave moves, many expected he would be right at the sharp end.
While he wasn’t a million miles away, especially with a strong Sunday podium, he wasn’t right there either despite his best efforts.
10 Pol Espargaro
Started: 15th Sprint: 16th Race: 12th
Given that he’s spent four months not just off the Tech3 Gas Gas bike but in a hospital bed recovering from life-changing injuries, no one expected more from Pol Espargaro at Silverstone than easing himself back into the chaos of MotoGP.
In the end, though, he did achieve more than that, taking solid points home and leaving a lot more confident about what’s to come in the following weeks now that the first event is out of the way.
11 Luca Marini
Started: 6th Sprint: 11th Race: 7th
In a word, Luca Marini’s Silverstone was steady. There were no dramatic heroics from the VR46 Ducati racer, no particularly special performances, and if anything he was one of a few Ducati riders who really struggled on Saturday.
But, with a decent late charge on Sunday he managed to turn it around a little, and while it’s far from his best weekend of the year, it was a long way away from being a terrible one either.
12 Jorge Martin
Started: 7th Sprint: 6th Race: 6th
Another rider who might feel hard done by being scored relatively low down in the order compared to where he actually finished, but that’s actually because of the expectations set by Jorge Martin in recent weeks.
He’s now established as a regular podium finisher and even arguably an outside bet for the title.
But the championship will never happen while he continues to have races where he simply doesn’t have the pace of his rivals.
He absolutely wasn’t slow at Silverstone, but he never really looked all that fast either, although being sent to the back by contact with Binder on Sunday clearly didn’t help.
The result? A lacklustre weekend that was really only salvaged by a crash from main championship second-place rival Marco Bezzecchi.
13 Jack Miller
Started: 2nd Sprint: 7th Race: 8th
With a strong front row start and time spent leading both races, scoring so low might seem really harsh on Jack Miller.
Yet despite the sort of damp conditions that traditionally favour the Australian, there was something of an as-expected sense to the way that both races panned out, with his early form steadily turning into a slow drop back through the pack.
Arrested only by first the length of the sprint and then a late shower of rain in the main grand prix that allowed him to regroup, it’s more points on the board but a missed opportunity compared to what could have been.
14 Iker Lecuona
Started: 17th Sprint: 22nd Race: 17th
It’s not easy being a Honda stand-in rider, and while Iker Lecuona might have some experience of it of late, this weekend he was lining up with a brand new team as he joined LCR Honda rather than Repsol Honda, this time in place of Alex Rins.
The youngster once again didn’t disappoint, bringing home the RC213V safely twice and continuing with what is clearly a Honda-ordained learning curve to turn him into its new go-to when someone else gets hurt, alongside his World Superbike duties.
15 Johann Zarco
Started: 9th Sprint: 4th Race: 9th
Normally, Johann Zarco performances sneak up on you with the Frenchman seemingly miraculously finding himself in good positions when the lights go out.
But at Silverstone it was almost the opposite, with potential never quite being redeemed into podium finishes.
Leaving it just a little too late on Saturday, he started strongly on Sunday with a soft rear tyre before tailing off in the final stages to conclude the weekend with decent but not exceptional results that will nonetheless do his championship position no harm at all.
16 Taka Nakagami
Started: 21st Sprint: 20th Race: 16th
Given that Honda is in full development mode and that Taka Nakagami is its testing mule on track at the minute, the fact that he ended the weekend as the best-placed Honda is a pretty good result for him.
There’s still lots to be done, of course, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Japanese rider’s slow and steady approach compared to Marc Marquez and Joan Mir’s all-guns-blazing attitude continues to pay off this season with a few more ‘best in class’ performances.
17 Enea Bastianini
Started: 13th Sprint: 13th Race: DNF
With Enea Bastianini now well recovered from the shoulder injury that dogged the opening half of his season, most expected him to come to Silverstone fully fit and ready to fight up front again. But his performance was something of a damp squib.
Never really looking competitive throughout the weekend, it was eventually a technical problem, potentially a result of contact with Marc Marquez, that ended his race – but it’s hardly like it denied him a fantastic haul of points.
There needs to be plenty of introspection about what happened before the Red Bull Ring in a fortnight.
18 Fabio Di Giannantonio
Started: 18th Sprint: 12th Race: 13th
The story of Fabio Di Giannantonio’s season has been a rider frustrated with his results but pleased with his own potential, and Sunday in particular was no different.
Pitting when he shouldn’t have for wet tyres came back to bite him by robbing him of all of his pace, and it means that he ended up perhaps further back than he should have.
Maybes and hidden potential won’t be enough to keep his Gresini Ducati seat for 2024.
19 Marco Bezzecchi
Started: 1st Sprint: 2nd Race: DNF
On one hand, Bezzecchi should be much, much higher on the ratings thanks to an impressive pole position and a strong podium in Saturday’s sprint.
However, the reality is that his rather rookie mistake during the main event might well have conclusively ended his title hopes.
Crashing out in Bagnaia’s slipstream by forgetting to give himself enough room to halt the VR46 Ducati was something of a beginner error, and cost him double-figure points that he’ll rue come the end of the season.
20 Joan Mir
Started: 19th Sprint: 17th Race: DNF
It would have been easy to believe that Repsol Honda rider Mir had continued to sit out the Silverstone weekend with yet another injury, such was the extent of his invisibility.
Never making any impression at all, the sole highlight of his weekend is that he was the top Honda in Saturday’s sprint before doing what he’s gained a reputation for in the main event and crashing out – his eighth non-score in a row from the opening nine grands prix of the year.
21 Marc Marquez
Started: 14th Sprint: 18th Race: DNF
Maybe for the first time in his whole MotoGP career, Marc Marquez spent most of the weekend at Silverstone resigned to his fate, simply making up the numbers and not risking too much after what has already been a punishing first half of 2023.
He managed to make things marginally worse in Sunday’s race, though, when despite his best intentions he reverted somewhat to old-school Marquez mode and managed contact with some of his rivals before crashing out.
22 Fabio Quartararo
Started: 22nd Sprint: 21st Race: 15th
The first sign that Fabio Quartararo was in trouble at Silverstone was when he finished Q1 not only last on the grid but a full seven seconds behind recently-sacked team-mate Morbidelli.
Things never really got any better from there, with a frankly embarrassing sprint from the 2021 world champion and a Sunday race where the most notable talking point was a failed overtake on Marini that smashed the front off his bike.
Even the single point he scored only came thanks to high attrition and the flag-to-flag conditions allowing for a pitstop.
