Perhaps not quite the day that the 2022 MotoGP championship was decided, but Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix was without doubt the most conclusive day yet in Pecco Bagnaia’s dominant second half of the season, as the Ducati rider not only took the win but did it in style, defending against a hard-charging Enea Bastianini and even a late push from his only remaining title rival Fabio Quartararo.
Quartararo too needs to be applauded for taking the fight to the line on a day when he in theory should have handed over his crown, given the strength of the Ducati at Sepang, while behind the battle playing out at the front rookie of the year Marco Bezzecchi was the headline act among a string of other strong performances.
And, as every Sunday, that means lots to talk about when it comes to rating the performance of the entire grid.
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.
10 Pecco Bagnaia
Started: 9th Finished: 1st
In the past, Pecco Bagnaia has proved himself somewhat suitable to folding under pressure – and on Sunday, Enea Bastianini applied pressure in absolutely copious amounts.
Not just fighting back and staying on the bike, Bagnaia came out on top and put one hand on the championship trophy in the process.
One of the greatest rides of his career, it very much looks like it’ll be the one that cements Ducati’s first riders’ title in 15 years.
10 Fabio Quartararo
Started: 12th Finished: 3rd
The ride of a champion, even if in the end it probably wasn’t good enough to win him another title.
Given everything we know about the Yamaha M1’s shortcomings, when Fabio Quartararo qualified in 12th it looked like game over, with the Frenchman – nursing a small fracture to the middle finger on his left hand – admitting that he didn’t believe it was possible to pass anywhere at Sepang.
But, with an absolutely blistering start to ensure a clear track ahead of him in the final stages, Quartararo gave it everything he had, and in the end it wasn’t him but his bike who let the side down.
8.5 Marco Bezzecchi
Started: 4th Finished: 4th
Yet another impressive ride from the rookie of the year, this one came with a dash of intelligent racecraft, too.
Initially closing down the gap to Fabio Quartararo in third place, sometimes discretion is the best part of valour and Bezzecchi displayed that as he settled for fourth.
There’ll be other days to fight for podiums, but in the end fourth was a fine enough score anyway.
8 Cal Crutchlow
Started: 15th Finished: 12th
It’s hard to argue that Cal Crutchlow hasn’t been exactly what Yamaha needed this year: a test rider who is both fast and motivated.
Knocking out strong performance after strong performance since his late return to MotoGP to replace Andrea Dovizioso isn’t just good for him – it’s good for Quartararo’s 2023 title aspirations as well, given who is developing his new bike.
Combined with topping a wet-weather practice session earlier in the weekend, this result at the Yamaha-unfriendly Sepang is without a doubt the best of Crutchlow’s latest return.
8 Enea Bastianini
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
Sunday’s race was a perfect example of how Bastianini is able to tread a very fine line between genius and madness.
Absolutely within his rights to fight for the win, especially with third in the championship standings on the line, he did so in a very high-risk way that could have very easily ended in disaster.
In the end, though, it didn’t, and it means that he racks up another podium and moves a fraction closer to a big end-of-year prize.
8 Marc Marquez
Started: 3rd Finished: 7th
Arguably the strongest weekend of Marc Marquez’s latest return to date.
The Repsol Honda rider’s impressive solo qualifying lap on Saturday combined with a decent showing on Sunday at a very physically demanding circuit and on a disappointingly bad bike show just how far he’s come of late.
It’s not the big-ticket success of a podium like last time out in Australia, but it might be a more important result nonetheless.
7.5 Raul Fernandez
Started: 22nd Finished: 15th
One of the best results of the year for the rookie, not just because he beat his team-mate and scored points, but because he came home only two places behind factory rider (and 2023 RNF Aprilia team-mate) Miguel Oliveira on what was a difficult weekend all round for KTM.
Breaking his birthday curse of bad results (he turned 22 on Sunday), it’s proof again that he’s slowly but steadily maturing into his rather prodigious talent.
7.5 Alex Rins
Started: 5th Finished: 5th
Backing up last weekend’s Phillip Island win with another strong performance, Rins never quite looked to have the pace for the victory at Sepang – and if he had, it would have been quite the surprise given how much you’d expect the GSX-RR to concede on the Malaysian circuit’s long straights.
But in the end he was still able to deliver an impressive race, and it bodes well for an excellent Suzuki send-off in Valencia in a few weeks’ time.
7 Jack Miller
Started: 14th Finished: 6th
Crashing out in qualifying caused all of the problems for Jack Miller in Sepang.
Relegated to well down the grid, tangled up in the usual chaos of the opening lap, and then forced to pick his way forward, his recovery was actually very impressive given that he’d found himself dead last at the end of lap one.
It’s not just the end result that’s important, either, but also the fact that he carved through the grid without burning up his tyres.
7 Brad Binder
Started: 13th Finished: 8th
A steady Brad Binder Sunday, with the end result nothing too fancy but by far the best KTM performance of the day after a tough weekend all round for the Austrian brand.
He improved steadily over the weekend, like he normally does.
6.5 Franco Morbidelli
Started: 7th Finished: 11th
A weekend of highs and lows for Franco Morbidelli.
Not just looking like a man back on the right path to his old self in the race, he had also been able to deliver an impressive qualifying performance – single-lap pace being biggest hindrance he’s faced this year.
However, penalised not once but twice for reckless actions, his result could have been so much better (possibly even inside the top five) if he’d approached the weekend a little more composed.
6 Johann Zarco
Started: 17th Finished: 9th
Off to a bad start with a poor qualifying position and then going backwards in the opening-lap turmoil, Johann Zarco can’t be that disappointed with the end result given what he endured throughout the race.
Though it obviously wasn’t anywhere near his best weekend of the year, his satellite team position means that he can have the odd day that’s not exceptional without it being too much of a drama.
5.5 Miguel Oliveira
Started: 18th Finished: 13th
Nothing too special about the finishing result for Oliveira on a tough weekend.
Struggling under braking, as KTM riders are prone to do, he then started experiencing tyre issues that halted any further charge as he repeatedly ran wide. Another rider for whom the end of 2022 perhaps can’t come soon enough.
5 Aleix Espargaro
Started: 10th Finished: 10th
Championship hopes finally over for Espargaro, and really it’s hard to pin the blame for that too much on the Spaniard given the repeated issues faced by not just him but team-mate Maverick Vinales over the whole course of the overseas tour.
It’s clear that something is very wrong with the Aprilia right now, and the result has been a return to 2021 form.
5 Luca Marini
Started: 6th Finished: DNF
Luca Marini’s race was over before it even started thanks to his front ride height device getting the suspension stuck in place.
His first-ever MotoGP DNF nearly three full seasons into his premier-class career, it’s testament to the Italian’s impressive consistency.
4.5 Joan Mir
Started: 11th Finished: 19th
There was more potential in Sunday’s race for Joan Mir, but, with a long lay-up recently thanks to injury, the Spaniard’s chances were dashed by perhaps an unexpected cause, when he was struck down by arm pump problems while fighting for the top five.
Unable to train on motorbikes lately thanks to his ankle break, he’s a little race-rusty, and it meant that, without full control of the Suzuki, he first dropped back and then off the GSX-RR machine before rejoining to finish last.
The good news is that the pace at least indicates he’s back on form.
4 Maverick Vinales
Started: 8th Finished: 16th
As with his team-mate Espargaro, Vinales paid the price for another tough weekend for Aprilia, but unlike Espargaro he returned to form somewhat by sinking even lower down the order to finish outside the points, showing signs of the Vinales of the toughest days of his Yamaha career.
He’s got the ability to be fast on the bike, obviously, but the team needs to keep his head up in the coming months and into winter.
4 Fabio Di Giannantonio
Started: 16th Finished: DNF
Caught out by an off-camera crash in sympathy to Darryn Binder, Fabio Di Giannantonio was having a relatively good race up until that point (even if he was once again getting left behind by his fellow Ducati racers).
Tricky conditions, as with Binder, played a role, but that can to a large extent be put down to rookie inexperience.
4 Darryn Binder
Started: 24th Finished: DNF
Making an absolutely blistering race start and suddenly finding himself knocking on the door of a top-10 finish without the pace to stay there, it perhaps all came as a bit of a shock for the RNF Yamaha rider, who caved under the pressure and came off.
However, with strong potential once again on display before he fell, it’s not necessarily a really disappointing result for him.
3.5 Remy Gardner
Started: 19th Finished: 18th
Unfortunately, it’s starting to seem like Remy Gardner has backed himself into a corner somewhat.
Alleging he’d been sacked by KTM for being too unprofessional, he doesn’t seem too concerned about proving his soon-to-be-former employer wrong as of late – and after Sunday’s race at Sepang, in which he was overshadowed by his team-mate, he sounded like someone who is very much focusing not on 2022 but on 2023 as he awaits his World Superbikes switch with GRT Yamaha.
3 Pol Espargaro
Started: 20th Finished: 14th
Another rider trying to just see out the year.
A poor qualifying compounded by a three-place penalty translated into a slow start to the race and limited Espargaro’s chances to make up any positions.
Not much more to say about it beyond that it’s just another bad run in a terrible season for Espargaro, and a KTM return can’t come soon enough.
3 Tetsuta Nagashima
Started: 23rd Finished: DNF
It’s pretty obvious just by looking at the long list of people who crashed during Sunday’s three races that conditions had deteriorated to less than optimal by the time action got underway at Sepang.
However, with Tetsuta Nagashima’s mission being not just to replace Taka Nakagami but also to continue learning the trade of being a MotoGP rider to improve his testing work for Honda, the factory is likely to be a little displeased at him failing to finish again.
2 Jorge Martin
Started: 1st Finished: DNF
Crashing out of the lead after a perfect start from pole position and while under no pressure from anyone reflected yet again why the factory elected to go with not Jorge Martin but Enea Bastianini for 2023.
He had a chance for an excellent result, and he (literally) threw it away – and that’s just not good enough.
2 Alex Marquez
Started: 21st Finished: 17th
Alex Marquez made a startling post-race revelation on Sunday, admitting that the thing that gets him through tough days on the LCR Honda is looking at the final results to see where the Ducatis have finished, as he prepares for a switch to Italian machinery with Gresini for next year.
With that in mind, it seems he played it safe on Sunday, with a view of simply getting through the year unscathed. Given his propensity for crashing and the aggressiveness of the RC213V, it’s hard to blame him too much for that.
