The 2025 Spanish Grand Prix was a MotoGP weekend that repeatedly devolved into a 'who can make the biggest mess' contest - in which three riders rose above the messiness.
Any of those three, even the one who threw away a potentially great sprint result, have a case for first place here, and the distance from P1 to P4 - for me - is maybe greater than P4 to P20.
The idea behind the rider rankings is to grade riders' performances all through the MotoGP weekend - though primarily the sessions that actually count towards something - in how impressive they really were.
I base it on what I think I know about those riders' machinery, performance level and outside circumstances - but it's not an exact science, and your own ranking may of course differ hugely. It's often more fun if it does.
And after every edition I answer your questions and comments in the MotoGP Rankings Debrief video in The Race Members’ Club on Patreon - just leave them in the comments on this post
Qualifying: 6th Sprint: 7th GP: 4th
Hear me out.
Other riders in the field - namely the poleman, the championship leader and the former championship leader - had higher peaks during the three days of the Spanish GP, but it's Maverick Vinales who truly put the three days together. And that is something he so often doesn't do.
His absence from the top 10 on Friday was a lie triggered by a mechanical issue, but it also so easily could've been something that unravels his whole weekend. Yet Vinales waltzed through Q1 and proceeded to truly deliver.
Did he maximise it? I'm not totally sure - he maybe could've picked off a Ducati straggler or two in the sprint, and the early battle with Fabio Di Giannantonio on Sunday by his own admission probably cost him a genuine podium bid.
But it's weekend number five for Vinales on the RC16, and suddenly he's the best KTM rider in every session that counts, while making the bike sing through the high-speed bits in sector four that it isn't really supposed to like.
Qualifying: 4th Sprint: 2nd GP: 1st
Alex Marquez didn't need the two crashes on Friday - which he himself admitted put him on the back foot - nor that threading-of-the-needle between the two red bikes on Sunday that should've cost him more ground than it did.
But the speed was there all the time, and there was a lot of it, in what was - even taking the result outside - potentially Marquez's most convincing weekend of the year in terms of that final tenth of a second of pace.
Which is no small feat. The 2024 Ducati is a marvellous bike, but Alex Marquez deserves a lot of credit for going toe to toe with all-time greats round after round after round.
Qualifying: 1st Sprint: DNF GP: 2nd
Fabio Quartararo's sprint crash was, in truth, a very stupid-looking and avoidable one - but he "didn't care" and I myself struggle to as well.
Putting the Yamaha M1 on pole here was an act of devious arcane wizardry. Quartararo's affinity for Jerez is well-documented - it's the track that made him CEV Moto3 champion, the youngest-ever Moto3 polesitter, the youngest-ever MotoGP polesitter and a MotoGP race winner - but that should not be enough.
The discourse over MotoGP 'aliens' and whether that's something it is missing relative to a decade ago is a deeply annoying one, but if you want to name some from the current generation who’s in that rarefied class, Quartararo must be the first name on the list.
Qualifying: 3rd Sprint: 3rd GP: 3rd
Whether you're a Pecco Bagnaia fan or a neutral observer (or, like, a hater, but then please reconsider your choices), this isn't a weekend that should make you feel particularly good about his title chances.
Bagnaia was his increasingly familiar limited self in the sprint, then didn't really capitalise on Marc Marquez's big Sunday blunder - allowing Alex Marquez to pounce on him, and then floundering behind a Yamaha he simply must overtake in a full-distance event.
Yet he's closer to the championship lead than two days ago, and keeps buying himself more time to figure out how he can get on level terms with Marc (and Alex), which is not nothing.
Qualifying: 15th Sprint: 12th GP: 8th
"Finally I won't rank Ai Ogura too high this weekend," I told myself on Saturday, aware that he's been ranking very high all year.
"Marco Bezzecchi's beaten him in qualifying trim, he's lacking front confidence, he didn't do a tonne in the sprint and he's worse on medium tyres, which he'll have to use on Sunday."
So much for that, eh?
Little did I know that it will be up to Ogura to uphold Aprilia's honour again when it counts the most, and that he would do it again, and that I would look at the results and say "11 seconds off the win, huh? I cannot possibly ask for more".
Is Ogura Aprilia's best fit rider right now? I don't know. But he is Aprilia's Mr Reliable, only five race weekends into his MotoGP career.
Qualifying: 13th Sprint: 11th GP: 6th
“Still really need to work on my all-out pace - I’m not fast enough, for sure," was Brad Binder's summary after the weekend, which may well be a general Binder summary, too. If that reads as harsh, it's only because a Brad Binder who is even slightly above grid-average in qualifying would be a top-three rider in MotoGP.
Every laptime between lap 3 and lap 24 in his Sunday race was within a four-tenth window, which is both very good (consistent! reliable!) and not very good (can't exploit peak rear tyre).
He believes his side of the garage figured out something for Sunday in terms of turning and edge grip - and it helps that he again capitalised well on the opening lap - but there's still a bit of work to do.
Qualifying: 12th Sprint: 10th GP: 7th
Pedro Acosta felt that his qualifying, itself compromised by a crash in practice forcing him onto a less favoured bike, "destroyed our weekend".
There's a kernel of truth to that, though coming off second/third/fourth-best in an opening-lap Sunday battle with Binder and others around them likewise didn't help. And that's a recurring theme and feels like an underdiscussed source of many of his issues.
An OK weekend ultimately, though one that further added to the impression he hasn't really taken that second-year leap.
Qualifying: 7th Sprint: 5th GP: DNF
A generally fantastic weekend was spoiled by what sounds like a fairly typical rookie mistake on the braking while trying to reel in Bagnaia - who was going to find Aldeguer a handful otherwise.
“I’m a rookie, I have to do mistakes like these to continue improving," was Aldeguer's post-race assessment, and while I object to the 'have to' part, it is certainly a lot more forgivable.
The Ducati is giving him a lot of margin over one lap - though it's clear he's improving there, too - but on race pace he's already a credible threat. A first podium seems a matter of time.
Qualifying: 8th Sprint: 6th GP: 5th
Fabio Di Giannantonio described himself as "happy with the result, less so with the performance", which is the kind of luxury situation a Ducati affords you.
He was pretty clearly the worst - or the slowest, anyway - of the six Desmosedici riders this weekend, and put that down to an attempt to experiment with a different set-up on Friday that was supposed to help him use some of the strengths of Marc Marquez and Bagnaia, but instead just nerfed his own strengths.
Is that a satisfactory explanation for being far off all weekend? I don't think so. Did he do well to keep things clean considering the general... slowness? That he did.
Qualifying: 2nd Sprint: 1st GP: 12th
The points Marquez discarded across COTA and here would make a reasonable-to-good full-season haul for, like, a quarter of the grid.
It is more imperative for him to finish these races than for any of his peers, because he has enough in his pocket to guarantee a podium every single time - something that cannot be said for anyone else, including his Ducati peers.
Good-to-superb in every other regard, and so fast all weekend - even once remounting his bike that he had turned into Swiss cheese - that these lost 20+ points really shouldn't matter. They're annoying all the same.
Qualifying: 16th Sprint: 13th GP: 10th
Luca Marini looked in serious strife all weekend, seemingly closer to tester Aleix Espargaro than his fellow Honda (non-rookie) riders over one lap and not that much better in terms of sprint pace.
But a set-up step forward for the session that mattered most - the Sunday race - bailed him out, as did the fact every other Honda rider tripped over something in one way or the other.
A weekend that doesn't help his case for a 2026 deal and doesn't hurt it either.
Qualifying: 18th Sprint: 14th GP: 9th
Limited by vibration and a general bike "nervousness" all weekend - and, once again, more convincing over longer distances than a single lap.
Though he still feels a bit lost with the KTM and its various moving parts - with no settled base set-up - he does already look a whole lot like (a slightly slower version of) Ducati-spec Enea Bastianini.
Qualifying: 19th Sprint: 18th GP: 17th
A Dani Pedrosa-like 'woah' cameo wasn't on the cards, but neither was Espargaro hopelessly outmatched.
Running a new Honda engine the initial verdict on which sounded a bit inconclusive, he welcomed the relatively pressure-free nature of a wildcard but still felt a bit disappointed after tailing the other Hondas too much through qualifying and the sprint.
But by Sunday he was much more on it, though the tyre pressure penalty - in regards to which he curiously suggested that the warning system on the Honda's dash isn't the best - means the result won't reflect it.
Qualifying: 9th Sprint: 9th GP: DNF
Let's get the obvious out of the way: even for a project that isn't fighting for anything big yet, Joan Mir's DNF rates are catastrophic. As per his welcome admission after Sunday: "I have to finish the races! It’s not a matter of just showing speed."
It is only fair, then, to acknowledge that the speed was there, that Mir was very obviously the fastest Honda rider this weekend and not by a little bit.
The crash was also more forgivable than they usually are, with Mir explaining that he actually tried to play it smart by surrendering position to Franco Morbidelli, then realised Morbidelli was actually struggling a lot, then crashed while getting caught out by Morbidelli running wide ahead of him.
Anyway, yeah... he has to finish the races!
Qualifying: 5th Sprint: 4th GP: DNF
Morbidelli rode a very good sprint - especially considering the magnitude of his crash earlier that same day, which had sent him into the air fence and left him in pain.
That pain was exacerbated by another big crash, this time out of sixth in the Sunday race, which came while was already trying to make up for a costly Turn 2 error on the opening lap.
All things considered, he did a fair bit of neck area damage this weekend - which hopefully won't impact the momentum of a good campaign.
Qualifying: 20th Sprint: 17th GP: 16th
Pramac sub Augusto Fernandez targeted a 'real', non-crash-reliant top 15 this weekend, and if we're being honest he was quite a fair bit off that target.
But for a stand-in this was ultimately a good spell, both at Jerez specifically and overall during this ongoing Miguel Oliveira absence. Fernandez said it surprised him how hard it is to get back into the MotoGP race weekend groove even if you've missed only a little bit - but he's not the first rider to notice that or show it.
He will be at Le Mans in case Oliveira can't ride or is forced to stand down mid-weekend - but otherwise his next race should be at Aragon in June as a wildcard, still with an inline-four rather than Yamaha's long-awaited V4.
Qualifying: 11th Sprint: 8th GP: 14th
At a good track for himself, Bezzecchi looked on course for his most complete weekend as an Aprilia rider - which was then dashed when he lost rear contact braking into Turn 1 on lap two on Sunday and went straight into the gravel.
He at least didn't hit anyone, like he had Quartararo in Argentina, and saw the funny side: "Just I went wide, fortunately without touching anyone - if not, for sure they [the stewards] kill me this time."
This was otherwise a pretty great weekend, and the recovery ride was decent, and the mistake itself can be taken as confirmation of Bezzecchi's long-held belief that Aprilia must sort out its braking stability as a priority.
But while he needs better from Aprilia, Aprilia needs better from him, too.
Qualifying: 10th Sprint: DNF GP: 11th
Johann Zarco's single-lap pace has been a marvel at Honda, but this weekend it was the only trick up his sleeve, covering up for an otherwise pretty horrid weekend.
He feels he just doesn't get on with Jerez and described the weekend as losing "my personal challenge" of finding some way to go fast over any prolonged spell.
The most notable part of his weekend was being the sole rider to go for the medium rear in the sprint, because he was worried about the vibration on the soft. In any case, it wasn't really paying off and then conclusively didn't pay off as he crashed out.
Qualifying: 23rd Sprint: 15th GP: 13th
Alex Rins wrecked his weekend through his (second) crash in pre-qualifying practice, which de facto cancelled his Q1 but also left him with knee pain, finger pain and a "little crack" in his wrist.
It was never-ever going to be great after that, and in fact looking at the end results you could probably call it better than expected.
Qualifying: 14th Sprint: DNF GP: DNF
Miller acknowledged after crashes on Friday and Saturday that he "needs to stop falling off the f***ing thing" - but couldn't fully test that conviction on Sunday as a fairing bolt cut through the wiring, first decreasing the available power and then ending the race.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of doubt that he is the second-fastest Yamaha rider right now - and he feels like his move to reduce the wheelbase after running a longer bike than his fellow Yamaha riders will pay off in this run of races - but it was a big, big chasm between the M1 in Quartararo's hands and the M1 in anyone else's hands this weekend.
And Miller did not make his life easy, even if the zero points aren't all his fault.
Qualifying: 17th Sprint: 16th GP: 15th
Raul Fernandez is fundamentally slow this year. He sounds increasingly aware of that, too - with that early-season bright-eyed optimism washed away by the realisation that what should be largely incremental changes to the RS-GP have robbed him of the ability to carry corner speed.
He "cannot turn", cannot make the front tyre do what he wants, cannot keep it in the appropriate range.
I don't know if he will be fast enough this season but he desperately needs a reset.
Qualifying: 22nd Sprint: 19th GP: 18th
Aprilia’s recalled stand-in Lorenzo Savadori had a weird outlap crash in Q1 and generally wasn't terribly fast - though when you're campaigning a so-called 'lab bike' you're not really getting a fair shake. As Savadori himself said, it's "not simple for Lorenzo the rider" - but makes total sense for Lorenzo the tester.
There's something nice - also because he's such a lovable guy - that Savadori went from zero MotoGP starts at age 27 to 32 MotoGP starts age 32, at least when I don't think about how that's in big part due to riders getting hurt.
Qualifying: 21st Sprint: 20th GP: DNF
We might finally have a half-clue as to why Somkiat Chantra has tailed off after his promising start to 2025. He had to park it with compartment syndrome after 12 laps, his swollen arm "like a rock" - and confirmed afterwards this has actually been a recurring issue this year.
Chantra thought it was just a natural consequence of his switch from Moto2 and something to be managed until it eases, but sounds like he may now seek a surgical solution.
Forgoing the usual journalistic impartiality, let's hope whatever conclusion is reached will help him rediscover his earlier form.
