Aragon MotoGP Rider Ratings: 2/10 score for one underperformer

Here's our rider ratings after the Aragon MotoGP - and one rider stood out after a weekend to forget.

Marc Marquez - 10

In the past, execution has cost Marc Marquez this year, It cost him in Germany, and it cost him in Austria. Not in Aragon, though. Instead, Marquez was perfect; the weekend was like a time machine to 2019, when no one really had a chance. The 1,000-plus-days statistic about his winning can finally end, too, so that’s a bonus, that we don’t have to be reminded of that three or four times every session. Generally impossible to pick holes in Marquez’ weekend, so a deserved 10.

Jorge Martin - 9

A step below Marc Marquez in Aragon is not bad place to be, and that’s where Jorge Martin was this weekend. Even his qualifying crash paid off, as he got to start from the clean side of the grid. Sometimes things just work out like that, and they did this time for Martin, who now leads by 23 points.

Pedro Acosta - 8

After a nightmare in Austra, Pedro Acosta was back to his early-season RC16 specification and back to his early-season podium form. Perhaps he was on the podium for others’ misfortune, but apart from Practice on Friday afternoon, when all the KTMs were slow, Acosta was among the fastest all weekend.

Brad Binder - 7.9

Brad Binder was almost as solid as Acosta. He was in the podium fight with him until the end, but just ran out of speed in the closing laps to make a real challenge, hence the -0.1 on his rating. But his ride to sixth in the Sprint despite spending half the first lap with no suspension as his start devices failed to disengage was exceptional.

Enea Bastianini - 7

It wasn’t a good weekend for Enea Bastianini. In Austria he admitted to struggling more than the likes of Martin and Bagnaia with the feeling of front locking, and Aragon’s new low-grip surface didn’t help that. HIs 14th-place qualifying put him way out of position, but two solid rides in the Sprint and GP salvaged his weekend.

Franco Morbidelli - 7

Franco Morbidelli was fairly anonymous for most of the weekend, but his ability to keep Bagnaia behind him for most of the first half of the Grand Prix was somewhat promising. It feels like Morbidelli is still improving with the Ducati, which is somewhat encouraging.

Fabio Di Giannantonio - 8

Considering his dislocated shoulder from Austria, Fabio Di Giannantonio had a perfectly solid weekend, racing to seventh on Sunday. As this is being written, he’s under investigation for an under-pressure front tyre, but that feels like something that shouldn’t impact how his weekend is viewed.

Marco Bezzecchi - 6

Marco Bezzecchi’s race seemed to be going fairly well in Aragon, relative to where he’s been for most of the year. He was running in seventh or eighth place for much of the race, but ended up falling behind his teammate at the end, which feels slightly anti-climactic. On Saturday, like Binder, he suffered with a start device that didn’t disengage, so that didn’t help, either.

Alex Rins - 8

Ninth place for Alex Rins is hardly going to see the 2024 Aragon Grand Prix rank among his best weekends in MotoGP, but ninth on a Yamaha in 2024 is commendable. We didn’t see much of him, but it was clearly a solid ride.

Jack Miller - 6

Jack Miller simply wasn’t as fast as Brad Binder or Pedro Acosta this weekend, which is fairly standard for this year, but that doesn’t make his 10th-place finish seem any less ordinary.

Aleix Espargaro - 6.5

It was a disastrous weekend for Aprilia, the RS-GP unable to work in the low-grip conditions. Aleix Espargaro was at least able to be the best of them, though, and provided their best moment when he was second on Friday afternoon.

Takaaki Nakagami - 7

For the second race in a row, Takaaki Nakagami was the best Honda. It’s almost like, since finding out he won’t have to ride the RC213V every other weekend in 2025, his form has improved. Curious.

Augusto Fernandez - 6

Augusto Fernandez had a rare moment in the spotlight in Aragon, when he spent a few minutes atop the times in a wet Warm Up session. Other than that, though, a pretty standard Augusto Fernandez weekend — 13th, and much slower than the other KTM riders.

Johann Zarco - 7.5

Two points for Johann Zarco was a solid enough ride on Sunday after crashing out in the Sprint, seemingly through contact with Jack Miller. Mostly, though, Zarco’s weekend was highlighted by his Q2 appearance, secured in Practice, which feels like quite an achievement on the RC213V.

Joan Mir - 5

One place behind Zarco was Joan Mir, who was solid enough in the race but not good at all in qualifying.

Raul Fernandez - 4

An incoming, at time of writing, tyre pressure penalty for Raul Fernandez will not change his world, as finishing 16th earned him no points in any case. Not a great weekend, although not all his fault.

Luca Marini - 3

Luca Marini had been improving recently and had been showing pace which was comparable with the other Hondas. In Aragon, though, he was last over the line, 55 seconds behind second-last Raul Fernandez, and 1:52 off the lead. A minute of that was lost on the first lap, but if he got all that time back he’d have still been out of the points and behind all the other Honda riders.

Alex Marquez - 6

Alex Marquez was having a solid ride, and had a fourth place in the bag. He fought, as he should have, for third, though, and that cost him. Ultimately a relatively inconsequential DNF for Marquez, who has no championship to consider or future to secure, but a frustrating one after spending much of the race in a podium position.

Francesco Bagnaia - 6

While nothing went wrong for Marc Marquez, and things seemed to work well for Jorge Martin, they didn’t for Francesco Bagnaia. A tyre he considered underperforming in FP1 began his Aragon woes, then he qualified on the front row, but on the dirty side of the grid. Spinning of the line in Sprint left him sixth, but another issue with his front tyre saw him fall to ninth by the end. He spun again on the line in the GP, and was recovering well until the contact with Marquez.

Was the contact his fault? No, he was ahead going into the corner. But that doesn’t mean it was Marquez’ fault, either, necessarily. Looking at the replays, it doesn’t seem especially clear that Marquez even saw Bagnaia around his outside. Either way, they were 16 points Bagnaia could have done without losing.

Maverick Vinales - 2

If the weekend was bad for Aprilia, it was horrific for Maverick Vinales. He was 50 seconds off the lead by lap 10, and retired on lap 11.

Fabio Quartararo - 7

There’s a reasonable argument that Fabio Quartararo’s Sprint ride was only as celebrated as it was because of the coincidence with Bagnaia’s descent through the field. With nothing going on at the front, the TV cameras followed Bagnaia’s rearward charge, which eventually brought him to Quartararo.

Not that the Frenchman didn’t deserve the plaudits, but you don’t see the same kind of celebration for Alex Rins’ result, which was only one position worse.

Anyway, Quartararo’s GP never really panned out at all thanks to an early crash, so that Sprint result rather saves his weekend, in hindsight.

Miguel Oliveira - 6.5

Miguel Oliveira’s weekend is difficult to judge. Best Aprilia in qualifying, but 1.7 seconds off pole in eighth; then by far the best Aprilia in the Sprint in fifth; but he followed that up with a crash from sixth on the first lap of the GP. Flashy but crashy for Oliveira, who will presumably hope for something a bit more consistent in Misano next week.