> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Austrian Grand Prix 2026 MotoGP rider rankings - URL: https://www.the-race.com/motogp/austrian-grand-prix-2026-motogp-rider-rankings/ - Published: 2026-09-21T13:26:06.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-21T13:27:36.000Z - Description: Pedro Acosta's been Val's standout rider of 2026. But was he actually the standout rider of the weekend where he finally won a grand prix...? - Author: Valentin Khorounzhiy - Tags: MotoGP, #secondary_feature_1 MotoGP's newest grand prix winner is also my rider of the season for 2026 so far - but he had no real chance of heading up these Austrian Grand Prix rankings. Instead, first place was a very easy call in someone else's favour. So where does Pedro Acosta end up? --- ***Agree, disagree or want to send Val off down a tangent? Leave your thoughts and question about his Austria rankings in the comments*** [***on this post in The Race Members' Club***](https://www.patreon.com/TheRace/posts/170151884/?ref=the-race.com) ***and he'll reply in his Q&A recording*** --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-APRILIA_JM.png) **Qualifying:** 1st **Sprint:** 1st **Grand Prix:** 2nd A weekend of gargantuan quality that backed up Martin's bluster about his race pace at Misano (before that race was ruined by arm pump). In the groove from the start of the weekend, at a track that clearly speaks to him, he had the edge within the Aprilia camp - and really flexed his muscles in the sprint to salvage the win after going down to eighth place (though of course was partly culpable in having to make that recovery). He felt less competitive in the grand prix but got another important result, fighting off Marco Bezzecchi and extending his championship lead - while also putting any ideas of in-season arm pump surgery to the side. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-LCR_JZ.png) **Qualifying:** 10th **Sprint:** 7th **Grand Prix:** 10th Zarco continues to look like he's never been out, and this was up there with Jerez for his best weekends of 2026. Though his edge over fellow Honda riders wasn't huge, it was reliable across qualifying and the races. The sprint in particular was a spectacular success, with a 5.9s gap to the winner a terrific return. The grand prix was complicated by Zarco dropping to as low as 17th on the opening lap - but his underlying speed meant that compared to his Honda peers he was uniquely well-positioned to recover. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-DUCATI_MM.png) **Qualifying:** 2nd **Sprint:** 2nd **Grand Prix:** 5th This was a difficult weekend for Marquez's title aspirations, and particularly unpromising for Mandalika next month - where the harder-construction tyre will return, at a less favourable layout. But while Ducati struggled Marquez himself was basically unimpeachable, as the fastest Desmosedici rider in every session but one (Friday practice). He had single-lap speed concerns coming out of Friday but turned it around emphatically in qualifying, and rode a fantastic sprint. A podium, Marquez insisted, was also on the cards on Sunday, but he was among several riders at Ducati affected by an inconsistent front brake - which led to him completely overshooting Turn 1 and left him fearing he may need to retire before the stopping performance suddenly corrected itself. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rbb-KTM_PA.png) **Qualifying:** 3rd **Sprint:** DNF **Grand Prix:** 1st I welcome any accusations of being a hater but know this - this is Acosta's lowest ranking since Jerez in April (!) and only because he over-complicated a weekend that had the potential to be shockingly straightforward. I believe Acosta wasn't much better this weekend than his season average. The truth is, the gaps to other KTM riders were about in line with the rest of 2026 - but the KTM just loved the Red Bull Ring this time, with its lower-than-expected grip, weird rear tyre and stop-and-go corners. Acosta blundered significantly twice - in the sprint, with the win firmly in his grasp, and in Sunday warm-up when he nearly wrote off his main bike. But this is plenty forgivable, given he'd waited so long for an opportunity like this, and faced with the now-or-never (at least at KTM) pressure of the grand prix he floated through the 28 laps. The relatively low ranking, then, also reflects the fact that his performance 'floor' this year is so obscenely high. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rbb-HONDA_TN.png) **Qualifying:** 18th **Sprint:** 15th **Grand Prix:** 13th I seriously flirted with putting Nakagami above the grand prix winner here. In the end I couldn't quite get there (which is probably for the best for the comments section) but I do believe this was an incredible shift. Though Nakagami was in a slightly more favourable position relative to fellow stand-in Pol Espargaro in terms of having had a fairly recent 1000cc bike test (as prep for his Motegi wildcard), most of his year has been about 850cc testing - and his race fitness is minimal. But he looked decent on Friday already and gained steam through the weekend, culminating in an exceptional Sunday ride - which was made possible by a request to Honda to reduce traction control as Nakagami "had confidence I could manage", and was proven correct. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rbb-TRACKHOUSE_AO.png) **Qualifying:** 5th **Sprint:** 4th **Grand Prix:** 4th Ogura felt "lucky" to be returning at the Red Bull Ring, where - he said - the layout was too simple to make his finger injury a real limitation. But he had still expected to be limited, and just wasn't at all. A pre-weekend prediction of '11th-12th place' was revised already after a very strong Friday, and he very ably backed up the factory Aprilias in both races - making you wonder whether without the injury he'd still be right in the thick of the title battle right now. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/-rb-APRILIA_MB.png) **Qualifying:** 4th **Sprint:** 3rd **Grand Prix:** 3rd It's highly unusual for Bezzecchi to be lead Aprilia in just one session all weekend (Sunday warm-up), but though the underlying performance was on the weaker side by his 2026 standards, in terms of execution it was the stabilising weekend he needed to counter his rollercoaster recent form. The points outlook is not so rosy - he has now dropped 42 points back from Martin, more than a race weekend's worth - but his options to prevent that were limited. He could have perhaps beaten Martin on Sunday if not for a couple of mistakes, and this would have meant an eight-point swing, but ultimately Bezzecchi still has some time to turn things around. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-YAMAHA_FQ.png) **Qualifying:** 9th **Sprint:** 12th **Grand Prix:** 17th By around the lap 10 point in Sunday's race, Quartararo was heading for P1 in these rankings. But the true competitive gravity of the Sunday race punished him in the end, as he was reduced to Moto2 laptimes and simply trundled to the chequered flag. You can debate whether his strategy for the race was the most efficient, but he was still the lead Yamaha, on a dreadful weekend for the bike. And his performance in the less tyre life-dependent portions of the weekend was scintillating again, with a qualifying effort that stablemate Jack Miller described as "nothing short of a miracle". His one-two performance punch of Misano and here has hopefully put any questions over his effort level completely to the side. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-DUCATI_PB.png) **Qualifying:** 7th **Sprint:** 6th **Grand Prix:** 7th Bagnaia has finally snapped out of his dreadful Silverstone-Aragon-Misano funk - but only after a miserable Friday at the Red Bull Ring too. When he came to the media after practice, he looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him where he stood. But there was a big step forward on Saturday morning, in damp practice, and for once it stuck. Bagnaia was solid in qualifying and then fairly strong in both races, despite likewise encountering that aforementioned brake trouble. Both he and Ducati needed this. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-GRESINI_FA.png) **Qualifying:** 12th **Sprint:** 8th **Grand Prix:** 8th Aldeguer never truly looked like matching his superb performance at the same track last year - but did have more in his locker than a pair of eighth places suggests. The main culprit in limiting his weekend was, as it often is, qualifying. He was three and a half tenths back from his own Friday time in Q2, so consigned to the back of row four - from which options were limited. His recovery was messy in both races, particularly on Sunday, where he committed the cardinal sin of compromising a team-mate's race. He lunged at Alex Marquez at Turn 6 but had to check up for the two Fabios fighting up ahead, so ran Alex nearly off the track, something that eventually earned him an understandable time penalty. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-KTM_BB.png) **Qualifying:** 11th **Sprint:** 9th **Grand Prix:** 6th It's important not to lose sight of the context of Binder's weekend, in which the primary driver was the excellent (at this track) KTM RC16 rather than any sort of personal breakthrough. That said, Binder did seem a touch closer to team-mate Acosta than normal, perhaps less compromised than usual by the rear tyre overpowering the front. Because of this, an even slightly better weekend looked on the cards. But Binder lost the front at Turn 8 on his best qualifying lap, didn't navigate the start of the sprint optimally, and had to use "the f\*\*king Moto2 \[engine\] map" for a chunk of the grand prix to save fuel. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-VR46_FD.png) **Qualifying:** 8th **Sprint:** 10th **Grand Prix:** 9th A "wrong weekend" was how Di Giannantonio put it in the end, putting it down to some set-up work that just didn't pan out rather than any specific issues. He had hoped to thrive, relative to his Ducati peers, within the grip limitations imposed by the reinforced tyre, but really couldn't lay a glove on Marquez - on a layout that has never truly agreed with him. We can draw a line under his long-shot title campaign now, but even like this the season is still good, even if it's lost a bit of its shine. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-GRESINI_AM.png) **Qualifying:** 6th **Sprint:** 5th **Grand Prix:** DNF The younger Marquez's underlying performance was healthy enough, in the context of a Ducati that he described as "not like the one that we know" because of the different rear casing. The execution was very messy. He crashed on Friday and again in Q2 (though that one, the weird front lock out of Turn 1, didn't look like his fault), then went down while duelling Raul Fernandez in the race - and admitted in the end that he'd made too many mistakes. But the sprint result was a properly good one despite the bike feeling being "zero fun", and his grand prix was primarily compromised by being punted out of the top 10 by Gresini team-mate Aldeguer. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-TECH3_PE.png) **Qualifying:** 14th **Sprint:** 14th **Grand Prix:** 16th Espargaro's 300th grand prix start was not among his best, nor among his worst. He again performed reasonably well in terms of sheer pace but looked race-rusty (and this time got shown up a bit by a fellow test rider). There were race mistakes on both days that left him catching up. He believed a top-10 was potentially in the offing on Sunday but lost any chance at it when he went wide in Fernandez's slipstream. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-HONDA_LM.png) **Qualifying:** 15th **Sprint:** 13th **Grand Prix:** 14th Marini's weekend had looked a lot more promising than this on Friday - but once he'd missed the Q2 cut by 0.004s, he knew he was in trouble. But he also seemed increasingly outmatched the further into the weekend we got, culminating in a particularly quiet grand prix ride. Marini lost out in the early battling and wasn't helped by getting smacked into the chest by a piece of debris. He also lamented not getting the most out of the stiffer rear tyre - putting more temperature into it than other Honda riders, perhaps due to his body dimensions, so unable to manage wheelspin effectively. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-TECH3_EB.png) **Qualifying:** 17th **Sprint:** 11th **Grand Prix:** 11th A very ropey weekend in which Bastianini was badly outshone by his fellow KTM full-timers - and even outqualified, though not outraced, by stand-in Espargaro. He really, really needed that Q2 spot on Friday but had trouble navigating the treacherous Schlossgold corner, and never really recovered from that setback. A "disaster" laptime in Q1 meant two compromised races in the pack. Not helping was the need to use the medium tyre, which he found unusually less suitable than the soft but felt he had to run when in the pack. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-YAMAHA_AR.png) **Qualifying:** 20th **Sprint:** 18th **Grand Prix:** 19th Coming off a San Marino GP that was destroyed by migraine-like symptoms, Rins was in much better shape than at Misano but had zero opportunities to make that count. The V4-engined Yamaha M1, just like its inline-four predecessor, was completely hopeless here with the reinforced rear tyre - which it absolutely chewed through unless you took extra care. Rins, who laboured in qualifying as usual, took the best care of the rear on Sunday among the Yamaha riders. This still translated to finishing 34s off the winner. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-LCR_DM.png) **Qualifying:** 16th **Sprint:** 16th **Grand Prix:** 15th Moreira now appears to be a bit on the back foot after such a strong Sachsenring-Silverstone-Aragon run. It isn't something very drastic that should worry Honda, but noticeable all the same. His Red Bull Ring weekend ultimately came across as just a bit too untidy. He felt he missed a real chance at Q2 on Friday, then predictably struggled more in Q1, then finished off his Saturday with a jump start that he acknowledged was a "big mistake". Sunday is harder to read, with a very strong warm-up on the soft front and then a fairly turgid race on the medium front, which Moreira said felt completely out of control, with excessive locking. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-PRAMAC_TR.png) **Qualifying:** 22nd **Sprint:** 17th **Grand Prix:** 20th This was another track where Razgatlioglu hasn't raced in ages by virtue of being in a different paddock. It's been so long since he was at the Red Bull Ring that he actually forgot what series it was in - not Red Bull Rookies Cup, as he was telling everybody, but the IDM Yamaha R6 Cup (he finished third, 10 seconds behind Niki Tuuli, who you may know from MotoE). He will have enjoyed that race a lot more than this Sunday's, which he described as "the second-worst of my life", behind only this year's Thailand opener. I think that's a little harsh - but I get it, and there is the common link of the reinforced rear tyre. Razgatlioglu was uncompetitive in qualifying, though maybe marginally better than as of late, but fairly impressive in the sprint despite a mini-feud with Espargaro (both were angry at one another post-race over losing touch with the pack). But he ran out of rear tyre immediately in the main race and just "tried to stay alive", bewildered and only carrying on "out of respect for Yamaha". ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-TRACKHOUSE_RF.png) **Qualifying:** 13th **Sprint:** 19th **Grand Prix:** 12th Probably Fernandez's joint-worst weekend of the season (with Brazil), but one that he is convinced has at least produced some light at the end of this particular Styrian mountain tunnel. Fernandez says he is not making the Aprilia RS-GP work for him this year at stop-and-go tracks - which does seem to tally with the results - but it looked particularly drastic this weekend as his stablemates dominated him (even with accounting for the jump start that demolished his sprint). He described the grand prix as "s\*\*t" and finishing 13th as something an Aprilia rider is "not allowed", but also said that the bike finally felt good in clean air, and hopes Motegi will prove that the troubles of this weekend weren't for naught. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-PRAMAC_JM.png) **Qualifying:** 21st **Sprint:** 20th **Grand Prix:** 21st Miller has been the greatest cheerleader of the Yamaha MotoGP project this year, but he was boiling with rage here - perhaps because his future is sorted and he can afford to be a bit more openly critical, but more likely because he'd felt "embarrassed" by the bike. There were F-bombs aplenty as Miller lamented hideous wheelspin from the reinforced tyre, which affected him in particular and left him doing "f\*\*king Bagger times" by the end of a demoralising Sunday. "I know I'm not extracting my best out of the bike," he admitted during the weekend - but it's clear the full Yamaha group was riding with one hand tied behind their backs. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/09/rb-VR46_FM.png) **Qualifying:** 19th **Sprint:** DNF **Grand Prix:** 18th An excruciatingly long and difficult weekend for Morbidelli, whose 0.662s deficit to the lead Ducati in FP1 was the closest he would get across the three days. There is very little positive to latch on here - Morbidelli himself has had no issue admitting this - and though the next few rounds are irrelevant to his contractual future, he must be desperate for his time in MotoGP not to end like this.