until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
It’s fair to say that both after his incredible victory in the opening race of the year in Qatar and after seeing his very impressive pace during practice, the fact that Enea Bastianini emerged as the winner of the Grand Prix of the Americas was no surprise – but still a major accomplishment in what is only his second year.
And what makes it even sweeter is the way in which he did it, first picking his way through and then holding off the advances of a whole horde of fellow Ducatis to emerge victorious on his year-old bike against the latest and greatest 2022 machines.
Of course, he potentially wasn’t the fastest rider on the day – but a start debacle for the previous King of COTA Marc Marquez meant that the Repsol Honda rider couldn’t do anything better than sixth: not a bad result given the race he had, but still far from where he should have been on a day that as always delivered more than its fair share of surprises.
Miss any of the action at the #AmericasGP yesterday? Never fear, @motovisualized has a full round-up here, including some #MarquezWatch.
We won't make that a thing, we promise. Just for yesterday's race. #AmericasGP | #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/fQMzxXSNmr
— The Race (@wearetherace) April 11, 2022
As always, the result of that is plenty of winners and losers, and plenty to talk about when it comes to our rider ratings.
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.
Alex Rins – 10
Started: 7th Finished: 2nd
There was a time not too long ago when Alex Rins would have found himself in the position he was in on Sunday, fighting against people like Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia, and then the result would have been somewhat inevitable: a crash.
But he once again displayed his newfound form at COTA, and he has firmly established himself as a title contender. It’s a very healthy result to build off.
Marc Marquez – 9.5
Started: 9th Finished: 6th
Marc Marquez is an eight-time winner at COTA, but Sunday’s sixth place finish might well be remembered as the ride of his life at the Texas track.
Struggling from the outset with a suggested electrical glitch that left him slow off the line, from then on he just got down to business by delivering the sort of assault from the back of the grid that honestly shouldn’t really be possible.
Hinting at shades of Argentina in 2018 with his aggressiveness – the only thing that takes anything away from his score – he was nonetheless still cleaner than the old Marquez would have been to deliver a stunning result.
Enea Bastianini – 9.5
Started: 5th Finished: 1st
Sublime work from the race winner. Only put a foot wrong in qualifying with a crash that put him further back than expected – but with his ability to preserve tyre life when none of the other Ducatis can, he was very clearly able to execute a pre-made plan all the way to the chequered flag for the second time this year.
Joan Mir – 9
Started: 8th Finished: 4th
With Mir only admitting after the race how well and truly he despises the Circuit of the Americas, some of his crew were heralding his result on Sunday as not just another move towards reclaiming the title from Fabio Quartararo but as one of the best rides of his MotoGP career.
He was fast, confident and absolutely incredible on the brakes – and he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with as the series heads to Europe.
Maverick Vinales – 8
Started: 14th Finished: 10th
Maverick Vinales has been telling us for a while that he’s finally starting to find his feet on the Aprilia, but while team-mate Aleix Espargaro has been getting down to winning ways, Vinales hasn’t yet set the world on fire.
But by beating last weekend’s race winner in a straight fight and for the first time establishing himself as top Aprilia, it’s finally proof that his time is coming on the Italian bike.
Jack Miller – 7.5
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
A good result but it could have been a better one for Miller. After a tough race last time out in Argentina, it’s good to see him bouncing back strongly – but the reality is that being conclusively beaten by the year-old machine of Bastianini isn’t exactly a great result for someone who is likely job hunting for next season.
Pecco Bagnaia – 7
Started: 3rd Finished: 5th
It’s not often we see Pecco Bagnaia deliver a relatively anonymous MotoGP race anymore, but that’s what Sunday’s performance was, as he hung onto the leading group for life or death and racked up crucial points rather than brave any heroics.
He won’t be delighted to be third Ducati, but it’s better to be ahead of Quartararo and Marc Marquez than behind them!
Raul Fernandez – 7
Started: 21st Finished: 19th
Austin was a tough race for the KTMs, and with both Tech3 riders being rookies, it’s hard to set definitive aims for them.
But Fernandez very much has a target in his mind now of being as close as possible to the factory riders every weekend, and he did an impressive job on Sunday of matching the struggling Miguel Oliveira.
It might not have scored him any points, but it shows what he’s capable of when things inevitably get a bit easier for him down the line as the bike improves.
Jorge Martin – 6.5
Started: 1st Finished: 8th
There’s perhaps a sense of missed opportunity for Jorge Martin, given that he had the speed for pole position and the pace to run at the front during the early stages of the race.
However, it’s worth remembering sometimes that despite being a race winner, he’s still relatively inexperienced, and in a race where even seasoned pros on the same GP22 machine – like Miller and Bagnaia – couldn’t stick the pace at the front, there’s no huge disappointment in dropping back for a solid top-eight finish.
Aleix Espargaro – 6.5
Started: 13th Finished: 11th
For someone who was on the record ahead of the weekend as claiming that COTA would be the worst race of the year for both him and his bike, Espargaro didn’t expect to be at the sharp end in Texas.
Things could have been a little bit better in the end, as he conceded his hard-won championship lead to Bastianini again and finished behind his team-mate, but if a bad Aprilia result is now 10th and 11th there’s still plenty to be positive about.
Fabio Quartararo – 6
Started: 6th Finished: 7th
Damage limitation for the world champion, albeit on a weekend when he should have done a tad better. Hamstrung by a poor qualifying, he was up against the wall from the minute the lights went out.
Managing a relatively decent job of pushing past at least some of the Ducatis, finishing as close as he could to Bagnaia and Marquez is the best part of his weekend.
Brad Binder – 6
Started: 17th Finished: 11th
It’s obvious that the Circuit of the Americas isn’t a track that works well with the current KTM RC16, with all four of its riders having a particularly tough weekend there.
In cases like that, the only proper way to measure a performance is against their team-mates, and in that regard Binder thoroughly trounced Oliveira. Still not by any stretch a good result, it was an average one on a tough weekend, which is better than nothing.
Remy Gardner – 5.5
Started: 22nd Finished: 20th
As much as he might insist that he’s well on the road to recovery, it’s pretty apparent that sometimes the pre-season wrist injury Remy Gardner sustained while training still gives him some bother, and Sunday was no exception at such a physically challenging track.
Spent by the end of the race, he still made it to the finish line, and did so not too far from his team-mate Fernandez and while holding off a late effort from Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Andrea Dovizioso – 5.5
Started: 15th Finished: 15th
A slightly better than previous for Andrea Doivizioso, but there’s still not too much to get excited about from the Yamaha rider’s pace, though it is improving a little.
Still trying to figure out how to ride the M1 like Quartararo, therefore in the same boat as Franco Morbidelli, he seems to be making slower progress than his fellow Italian even as the results look a little better on paper.
Pol Espargaro – 5
Started: 12th Finished: 13th
If Pol Espargaro had come into the weekend fully healthy, much more would have been expected of him than a points-scoring finish.
But, given he was crippled all weekend with a stomach bug and taking on the most physically challenging track of the year, to end up in 13th and not the last Honda is a small but important victory for him.
Darryn Binder – 5
Started: 24th Finished: 22nd
Not a terrible day for the rookie Binder brother despite the 1m42s gap to first place, which was the result of a sensor problem in the closing stages of the race triggering an unplanned pitlane visit.
That aside, though, he had an uneventful race, which really is what rookies should be having, especially on physically demanding circuits like COTA.
Johann Zarco – 5
Started: 4th Finished: 9th
Perhaps a slightly better result could have been expected from Johann Zarco given what looked like decent race pace and a strong qualifying performance, but it was pretty apparent as the race progressed that he simply didn’t have the pace to stay at the front.
Managing the situation acceptably until the end, it was another of his relatively anonymous performances – but was still a chance to get yet more valuable points on the scoreboard.
Franco Morbidelli – 4.5
Started: 19th Finished: 16th
A disappointing weekend all round for Morbidelli, but he wasn’t completely distraught afterwards.
Aware that he’s still playing catch up on team-mate Quartararo but losing the entire warm-up session after a technical problem with his bike, he went into the race on a brand new setting and, despite getting the chance to have some fun making overtakes, says that it’s still a case of needing more time.
Taka Nakagami – 4
Started: 10th Finished: 14th
Another rather lacklustre weekend for Taka Nakagami, as his 2022 season continues to fail to get off the ground.
Even the rather unwell Pol Espargaro managed to see the chequered flag ahead of the Japanese rider, with Nakagami lamenting a lack of initial acceleration out of the corners.
Fabio Di Giannantonio – 3.5
Started: 18th Finished: 21st
It’s now looking very much like the 2021 Ducati continues to perform better than the new bike, with Bastianini taking victory for the Gresini team – and while no one was expecting his rookie team-mate to be performing as equally well as the race winner, it was perhaps not unrealistic to hope that Di Giannantonio would have been a little bit further forward, especially given the woes faced by the KTM rookies Fernandez and Gardner.
Miguel Oliveira – 3
Started: 20th Finished: 18th
Ever since Oliveira described his performances this year and last as spiky, the moniker has stuck – and if Indonesia was a high, this was a low.
Sure, it was a tough weekend for the Portuguese rider and his team, but for the same reasons as Brad Binder scoring relatively high, Oliveira scored low for ending the race 20s from his team-mate – closer to the back than the front.
Marco Bezzecchi – 3
Started: 16th Finished: DNF
A hat-trick of problems for Marco Bezzecchi at COTA. His qualifying crash was problem number one, giving him a lot of work to do. His race crash, when a good result was there for the taking, was number two.
And finally, complaining loudly about his oil-leaking bike being black-and-orange-flagged and being denied the chance for a run around at the back of the field was the third. All in all, a Sunday to forget.
Luca Marini – 2.5
Started: 11th Finished: 17th
This weekend, Luca Marini really should have been more competitive on Sunday, especially given that all four of the other Ducati GP22s finished inside the top 10.
He’s been given the benefit of doubt for the opening races of the year, but with those on similar machinery performing well, that’s becoming something of a weak excuse now. He simply has to find better form when the series resumes in Europe.
Alex Marquez – 1
Started: 23rd Finished: DNF
If Alex Marquez isn’t in MotoGP next year, it won’t be because he lacks speed or talent, it’ll be because of his painful lack of consistency.
He just can’t seem to stay on the bike, and three crashes this weekend and a 50% DNF record from the opening races of the year simply isn’t good enough when there’s a queue of hot young talent waiting for their own shot at the premier class.
