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Yet another chaotic MotoGP weekend, and this time with another first time winner at the Styrian Grand Prix, as Pramac Ducati rookie Jorge Martin delivered on long-promised potential with a dominant victory at the Red Bull Ring.
Martin is just one of a handful of riders who really impressed at the Austrian track – but there were even more who had disappointing ends to their Sundays.
With that in mind we have, as usual, ranked the whole grid based on their performances.
Our MotoGP ranking system is simple: the riders who we believe performed the best are at the top, and the ones who underplayed are at the bottom, and scored appropriately.
It isn’t just about the end result though, with pre-race expectation and form heavily influencing their eventual score – not just the points they take home with them.
Jorge Martin – 10
Started 1st, finished 1st
Simply put, the perfect weekend for the rookie.
When Jorge Martin secured pole position on Saturday it didn’t come as a huge surprise: he’s always had a gift for time attacks and it isn’t even the first of the year for him.
Yet despite admitting that he had targeted the race as one with the potential to deliver a good result for him, it nonetheless still came as a surprise to see him right at the sharp end on Sunday – and holding his own all the way.
Yet that’s exactly what he did, dominating reigning world champion Joan Mir and leaving the Suzuki rider in his dust.
It’s undoubtedly only the start of Martin’s journey to the top of MotoGP, and only six races in, he did it in style.
Fabio Quartararo – 9
Started 3rd, finished 3rd
Established logic says that the Red Bull Ring isn’t a Yamaha circuit – yet it didn’t look to slow down Fabio Quartararo at all as he took the sort of result that’s going to hand him the title at the end of the season, if he carries on in this way.
We know he’s blisteringly fast on his good weekends, but being rapid on the ones that should be bad are the hallmark of a champion.
Brad Binder – 8.5
Started 16th, finished 4th
It’s cliche now to call Brad Binder a Sunday man, but it’s hard to get away from the label when he continues to struggle throughout the weekend then deliver standout performances only in the race.
Admitting that he lost his way over the weekend, in the end an incredible last lap charge in which he executed not one but two of the bravest, cleanest overtakes you’ll ever see means that he absolutely deserved his fourth place.
Joan Mir – 8
Started 5th, finished 2nd
A very strong weekend indeed for the world champion. Joan Mir took valuable points off his biggest rivals without putting a foot wrong in the race.
Could he have hunted down Martin and won the race? Maybe, but it would have been risky, and Mir has always been risk-averse unless he needs to take a chance.
The only thing marking him down is really his potential unfulfilled, as he looked to have the pace to check out – but second is still nothing to be sniffed at.
Taka Nakagami – 7.5
Started 10th, finished 5th
We know that Taka Nakagami goes well at the Red Bull Ring – the LCR Honda rider was rather cruelly denied a first victory there 12 months ago when the red flags came out, after all.
Yet what makes his result this time around even more impressive is that he did it against a relatively stacked field, and on a day when the rest of Honda’s riders were struggling. A strong statement to his compatriots and his bosses.
Enea Bastianini – 7
Started 20th, finished 12th
Sure, the Red Bull Ring is a Ducati track, but that doesn’t take anything away from another solid performance from Enea Bastianini.
Not doing anything crazy, not shining quite like fellow rookie Martin, he’s nonetheless been quietly getting on with doing a good job of learning the ropes in the premier class.
The only black mark against him was his long lap penalty for track limits infringements, but he was far from the only one to suffer that fate.
Alex Marquez – 7
Started 11th, finished 9th
It’s not been a great season so far for Alex Marquez, and while a top 10 finish isn’t necessarily the sort of thing you’d be rushing out to celebrate, given the difficulties he’s faced so far this year it’s not a terrible result at all.
Only one place behind his brother Marc and well clear of the second Repsol Honda of Pol Espargaro, it could be a good chance for Alex to build on this and try to turn around his season.
Alex Rins – 6.5
Started 13th, finished 7th
It was a strong weekend for Mir, but things didn’t quite come as easily to his Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins, who seems to have taken a bit more time to get used to the new ride height adjustment device.
Not as big a fan of the Red Bull Ring as the other side of the garage either, he was nonetheless able to limit the damage with a result that’s not outstanding but didn’t disgrace.
Luca Marini – 6.5
Started 18th, finished 14th
Much like fellow Ducati rookie Bastianini, Luca Marini did a steady job all weekend at the Red Bull Ring and that showed on Sunday.
Not remarkable but not a disappointment either, consistent points-scoring finishes are a realistic goal for the Italian right now and he’s hitting his targets.
Aleix Espargaro – 6
Started 7th, finished DNF
It’s hard to get too much of a read on what Aleix Espargaro’s real potential was at the weekend given that both attempts at a race start resulted in him getting tangled up with Marc Marquez at Turn 1 and his race eventually ended with an expired engine.
Again showing some strong potential in qualifying, the reality for him is the only path he can really take is to forget it and try again next weekend.
Dani Pedrosa – 6
Started 14th, finished 10th
No one was expecting too much from Dani Pedrosa at the Red Bull Ring, given that it’s nearly three years since he last raced a MotoGP machine – yet the KTM wildcard delivered an impressive performance to come home in the top 10.
In fact, the only thing keeping him from recording a much higher score is the crash that brought out the red flag, where a rookie error touching the white line left Lorenzo Savadori with a broken ankle and KTM with one crispy RC16.
Iker Lecuona – 6
Started 19th, finished 15th
Not Iker Lecuona’s best result of the year, and not the finish he’d have been hoping for when he saw the weather on Sunday morning. A dry race never had the same potential for the KTM rider as the rain would have.
A long lap penalty didn’t help matters either, but honestly it didn’t have a huge effect on what was a fairly average day.
Johann Zarco – 6
Started 6th, finished 6th
Sunday’s race looked set to be another one of those stealthy Johann Zarco performances that have somehow launched the Pramac Ducati rider to second in the championship – right up until the final laps of the race, when things came unstuck slightly and left him not quite as well off.
Dropping from fourth to sixth as both Nakagami and Binder made their way past him, he ended up bleeding key points to Mir at a track where Suzuki should have been at a disadvantage.
Valentino Rossi – 5.5
Started 17th, finished 13th
A big weekend off the track for Valentino Rossi as he announced his retirement at the end of the 2021 season, but on the track it was really more of the same as in recent months for him.
Nothing spectacular, but at least this time out he managed to bring the bike home in one piece at a distinctly un-Yamaha track.
It’ll be a case of hoping for more of the same next week then seeing if a Silverstone surprise is possible.
Miguel Oliveira – 5
Started 12th, finished DNF
Hindered before the weekend even got properly underway after a crash in FP1 left him nursing a bone bruise to his hand, he never quite found the correct path after that.
Maybe he would have been able to limit the damage in the race, but a badly defective Michelin front tyre that fell apart under him means judging his potential isn’t easy. Here’s hoping he’s feeling fitter for next weekend.
Cal Crutchlow – 5
Started 23rd, finished 17th
Came to do a job, met expectations, did that job, finished the weekend happy; that’s Cal Crutchlow’s first race since last November in a nutshell.
Drafted in to replace Franco Morbidelli at the least-friendly track of the year for the bike he was riding, Crutchlow did what was expected of him and made it around in one piece without any fireworks and (crucially) any crashes.
Lorenzo Savadori – 5
Started 21st, finished DNF
Had it rained for the race, then it looked almost certain that Lorenzo Savadori would have been one of the surprise packages of the weekend.
But it didn’t, and as a result he was far down the field when the race got underway and was unfortunate to get tangled up in Pedrosa’s crash.
Never given a chance to show what he could do in the dry at a strong Aprilia track, it’s hard to call what he could have delivered.
Marc Marquez – 4.5
Started 8th, finished 8th
After the race, Marc Marquez was quick to pin at least some of his woes on a bad tyre, albeit not to the same extent as Oliveira’s.
But the reality is that the Repsol Honda man looked ragged in the race, making aggressive moves and barging riders out of the way – normally a fair sign that he isn’t feeling his best.
And that’s reflected in the result, with the eight-time world champion coming home as second Honda to Nakagami.
Pecco Bagnaia – 4
Started 2nd, finished 11th
When the lights first went out on Sunday, it looked like Pecco Bagnaia would be the top Ducati rider.
When they went out again after the red flag, he was nowhere – and while he wanted to put the blame on Michelin afterwards, you’ve got to think that the switch from medium to hard front tyre was more of a factor in it than anything else.
A wasted weekend when he had the chance to recover big points from title leader Quartararo, it’s hard to see him as a title contender anymore.
Maverick Vinales – 4
Started 9th, finished DNF
There’s no rider as consistently hard to score as Maverick Vinales.
He looked so strong in the opening start that it’s easy to understand his defence of clutch problems costing him the chance to start the race from his grid position second time out.
Yet in typical Vinales form, he looked like he fell apart when he realised he was up against big odds. Retiring with a phantom electrical problem, it definitely looked more Sachsenring than Assen.
Danilo Petrucci – 4
Started 22nd, finished 18th
Another weekend where Danilo Petrucci needed to bring his A game and instead got beaten by a much less experienced team-mate – and a rusty wildcard test rider on the same bike to boot at the Red Bull Ring.
He’s got a great record and an even better personality, but it’s not unexpected that KTM has opted to replace him for 2022.
Jack Miller – 3
Started 4th, finished DNF
The day that definitively ended Jack Miller’s 2021 MotoGP title aspirations.
The Australian was doing a decent job, even if it wasn’t quite fighting for the podium, and it would have been enough to keep him in touching distance for now if he’d finished inside the top six.
But failing to make it to the chequered flag for the second race in a row means any realistic chance is now long gone.
Pol Espargaro – 1
Started 15th, finished 16th
Pol Espargaro is completely lost at Honda. Unable to find rear grip, unable to ride the bike the way he wants to, and seemingly unable to adapt himself to make it work any other way, he’s got the same attitude that Jorge Lorenzo did at this point in the 2019 season.
There’s no light at the end of the tunnel, and unless Honda finds something fast, it’s going to be a long second half of the season for him.
