until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The opening lap of this year’s Catalan Grand Prix has produced high drama for the second year in a row, this time wiping out not only three quarters of Ducati’s eight bikes but also seriously denting reigning world champion Pecco Bagnaia’s title defence for the first time this season, by leaving him battered and bruised from a monster highside and a subsequent collision with other riders.
In his absence from the restart, local hero Aleix Espargaro completed his perfect weekend by backing up sprint success with a stunning main event victory over his team-mate Maverick Vinales to very much secure the ascendancy of Aprilia to regular race-winning status.
He wasn’t the only one to shine, though – and Bagnaia wasn’t the only frontrunner to have a tough weekend at Montmelo, meaning that there’s been more than enough good, bad, and ugly to score the grid on for our weekly rider ratings.
Scoring the grid in order based on their performances not just in the main event but also Saturday’s sprint race, it’s obviously all subjective – but comes not just from their final race result but takes into account things like the machinery they’re on and the pre-race expectations.
1 Aleix Espargaro
Qualifying: 2nd Sprint: 1st Race: 1st
As MotoGP weekends go, Aleix Espargaro’s was perfect. Not only did he help deliver Aprilia’s best-ever weekend in the premier class, and do it in front of a home audience only metres from his childhood home, he very much asserted not just the brand’s own rise but also his own status as a genuine regular race winner.
The only small thing he was missing was pole position as well, but there’s no way that’s going to bother him!
2 Maverick Vinales
Qualifying: 4th Sprint: 3rd Race: 2nd
If Maverick Vinales had broken down on the second lap of both races this weekend, it would still have been a resoundingly successful trip home for him – because he finally nailed his biggest woe and pulled off two glorious race starts.
Showing, like we always suspected, that if he can start well he can ride great, it’s taken a long time to get to this point. Now that he’s there, though, it’s hard to imagine that he hasn’t established a new benchmark to go forwards from.
3 Johann Zarco
Qualifying: 6th Sprint: 7th Race: 4th
Yet another weekend of Johann Zarco ghosting to a good result – except Sunday’s in particular this week came only a few minutes after bouncing back – literally – from getting wiped out by Enea Bastianini (along with most of the rest of the grid’s Ducatis) at Turn 1.
In the context of that, his fourth-place finish in the main event is exceptional. On top of his decent if not earth-shattering sprint performance, it concluded an all round strong weekend.
4 Miguel Oliveira
Qualifying: 3rd Sprint: 6th Race: 5th
Finally, some good luck comes the way of Miguel Oliveira. For once not involved in a Turn 1 pile-up, he instead helped round out a super Aprilia weekend by taking its year-old bike to two top-six finishes.
Unable to keep his front tyre alive until the end in the main event and eventually just picked off by Jorge Martin and Zarco, it’s nonetheless a solid result and one that Oliveira should be able to build well on.
5 Jorge Martin
Qualifying: 5th Sprint: 5th Race: 3rd
Some racers are very good at smelling an opportunity and capitalising on it, and that’s exactly what Jorge Martin did at his home race. Fast on Saturday but overcooking it early in the race and leaving himself work to do, he made up for it on Sunday by taking a very strong points haul while his title rivals either struggled (Marco Bezzecchi) or watched from the medical centre (Pecco Bagnaia).
Never looking likely to beat Aprilia, it nonetheless turns the momentum in his favour.
6 Brad Binder
Qualifying: 9th Sprint: 4th Race: DNF
It’s a shame we didn’t get to see what Brad Binder could have delivered in the main race on Sunday, because his sprint hinted that there was much more to come.
Unfortunately, a mechanical problem took him out of contention early on in the restart – not so long after his quick reflexes saved Pecco Bagnaia from serious harm when he found the reigning world champion spinning in his path with nowhere to go.
It wouldn’t be hard for Binder to be disappointed with a single sprint fourth place but, overall, he’ll remember this weekend for what was averted.
7 Fabio Di Giannantonio
Qualifying: 8th Sprint: 13th Race: 10th
For the longest time, Fabio Di Giannantonio has been threatening to put all the elements of a decent MotoGP weekend – and Barcelona was the closest he’s come so far.
Decent in qualifying, decent in the races, it might be too late to save his MotoGP career at this point, but with tasty World Superbike rides on offer, it was nonetheless important timing from the young Italian.
8 Fabio Quartararo
Qualifying: 17th Sprint: 18th Race: 7th
When Fabio Quartararo ended Saturday’s Q1 session 17th on the grid and subsequently came home an awfully long way from the points in the sprint, it looked like last year’s race winner was in for another forgettable weekend.
Credit to him, though – he turned it around on Sunday with a truly impressive charge through the field to seventh. Sure, it’s not what he’s here for, but it’s still better than the metaphorical kicking he’s received in most races this season.
9 Augusto Fernandez
Qualifying: 19th Sprint: 17th Race: 9th
Another Sunday, another points-scoring finish for rookie Augusto Fernandez, who extends what has been a flawless record so far this season – a really impressive feat given both his own relative inexperience and the chaos of MotoGP right now.
He seems more than capable of keeping himself out of trouble, and is racking up a very strong season on the Tech3 Gas Gas machine as a result.
10 Raul Fernandez
Qualifying: 15th Sprint: 14th Race: DNF
Aprilia’s senior management team was pretty certain after the race that, while it had an exceptional day, a technical problem that locked the front holeshot device on Raul Fernandez’s bike left it still missing something.
We’ll never know if a top-six finish, as suggested, was really on the cards, but at least his data seems to have (for now) reaffirmed the factory’s belief in him after a turbulent opening half to the season.
11 Pecco Bagnaia
Qualifying: 1st Sprint: 2nd Race: DNS
At a track where the Aprilias always looked like the clear favourites, the championship leader’s weekend started off well. He somewhat unexpectedly beat Espargaro to pole and turned it into a solid sprint result – but things quickly went wrong on Sunday.
It’s hard to imagine right now that his monster Turn 3 highside was anyone’s fault but his own, asking a little too much from the cool rear tyre early in the race.
He seems to have limited the damage to an extent by luckily escaping without too severe a battering, but it’s a title dent he didn’t need on a day when settling for a safe podium would have served him well.
12 Iker Lecuona
Qualifying: 22nd Sprint: 19th Race: 16th
Delivering yet another surprise by getting right into the mix with his fellow Honda riders, Iker Lecuona has proven if nothing else that the Japanese factory made the right call not only in using him to replace the injured Alex Rins but even in promoting the MotoGP reject to headline its World Superbike effort.
He’s done a superb job filling in, something that will stand him in good stead going forwards with Honda.
13 Alex Marquez
Qualifying: 7th Sprint: 10th Race: 6th
This wasn’t a particularly bad weekend for Alex Marquez, but it wasn’t a good one either.
Largely out of contention and out of the points in the sprint, he recovered somewhat on Sunday in part thanks to a few absences in front of him, but it nonetheless marks a dip in form from what we’ve come to expect from him of late.
14 Pol Espargaro
Qualifying: 14th Sprint: DNF Race: DNF
Despite his race-winning brother’s love for their home circuit, the Catalunya track isn’t one that the younger Espargaro has always particularly enjoyed, as shown this weekend.
Still on the mend from his Portimao injuries but coming off the back of a successful Austrian sprint race, his plans this time were to instead target Sunday’s main event – a plan brought to a literal halt by a clutch malfunction.
15 Marc Marquez
Qualifying: 12th Sprint: 11th Race: 13th
The best that Marc Marquez can seemingly hope for these days is to finish races safely and to be best of the Hondas, and he did that conclusively at Barcelona.
It’s no fun seeing his exceptional talent wobble around on the fringes of the points-scoring places, but it’s all the bike is capable of at the minute, and at least he can keep reminding us how much better he is than all his team-mates, at least until things improve technically.
16 Luca Marini
Qualifying: 18th Sprint: 12th Race: 11th
Bang average for Luca Marini – which says quite a bit about the rising expectations for the VR46 Ducati rider this season.
We’ve got used to seeing him at the sharp end – or at least quite close to the sharp end – but both he and team-mate Marco Bezzecchi clearly looked to be missing something in Catalunya. While 11th might at least be safe points, with so many of his fellow Ducati riders jumping back on their bikes seconds after crashing, you’d have expected Marini to be able to make up a few more places than he did from a poor qualifying.
17 Franco Morbidelli
Qualifying: 16th Sprint: 15th Race: 14th
On one hand, this isn’t a terrible weekend for Franco Morbidelli when you take into account circumstances – but on the other, excuses don’t really compensate for tough results.
Able to at least finish ahead of team-mate Fabio Quartararo in both qualifying and the sprint, there was more possible in the main event too – but, with Morbidelli forced to start with the same used tyre he’d already had on the bike when the red flag came out, there was nothing left to give.
While he did at least maintain his run of points-scoring finishes, 14th is nothing to get excited about.
18 Taka Nakagami
Qualifying: 21st Sprint: 20th Race: 15th
An average day, really, for LCR Honda rider Taka Nakagami. Nursing the bike home safely, as he does more often than not, but not causing any real excitement en route to a single point, it’s really another case of simply achieving what’s realistic there right now.
However, with temporary team-mate Lecuona nipping at his heels only one place behind, that should come as a warning not to grow too complacent just yet.
19 Marco Bezzecchi
Qualifying: 10th Sprint: 8th Race: 12th
Even before getting wiped out on the opening lap of Sunday’s race and being forced to restart nursing a hand injury that limited his capabilities, Marco Bezzecchi wasn’t having a particularly strong weekend.
Very much the reason why he isn’t yet a true championship contender, his form still dips and dives from race winner to struggling to score points, and this weekend was on the lower end of the scale. He will be hoping his damaged hand isn’t too seriously hurt so that he can try and regroup next weekend at home in Misano.
20 Joan Mir
Qualifying: 20th Sprint: 21st Race: 17th
If you’re looking for a silver lining, then the highlight of Joan Mir’s weekend is that he managed to finish a race on Sunday – the first time he’s done so since the opening round of the season in March. The flip side of course is that he did so outside of the points, out of touch with his fellow Honda riders, and very much looking like someone who has totally given up on the RC213V dream.
It’s sad to watch a world champion struggle so much, and a hopefully new and improved bike can’t come soon enough at next week’s Misano test.
21 Enea Bastianini
Qualifying: 11th Sprint: 9th Race: DNS
Simply put, Enea Bastianini’s move into the opening corner of Sunday’s main event was somewhere between dumb and reckless. Sure, in the end he came off worst from it with two broken bones that will require surgery to repair, but it’s entirely a self-inflicted injury after a do-or-die move that we’ve seen time and again this season simply doesn’t pay off most of the time.
Maybe he wouldn’t have been so impatient had he started where he qualified, but compounding the issue with a grid penalty for careless riding turned into something of a perfect storm. He was lucky to not have also significantly injured any of the other four Ducatis he took with him (the jury’s still out on Bezzecchi’s injuries, mind), and will have plenty of time to analyse his lunge from the sidelines yet again.
22 Jack Miller
Qualifying: 13th Sprint: 16th Race: 8th
On what should have been a weekend for Jack Miller to get his head down and pick up some valuable points, especially with many out of contention, that’s exactly what didn’t happen. Miller did what he does all too often and converted good starts into a plummet through the field for the second weekend in succession.
It’s been his perennial weakness, it remains something that he hasn’t been able to really address, and it’s something that’s soon going to work against his future aspirations.
