Malaysian MotoGP Rider Ratings: Shocking weekend for one factory rider

Here's our rider ratings after the Malaysian MotoGP - with one factory rider in particular having a tough time in Sepang.

Francesco Bagnaia - 7.5

Francesco Bagnaia’s Sunday performance was exceptional in Malaysia. He was strong in the battle early on, and then laid down a devastating pace to establish a substantial gap over Jorge Martin which he successfully managed to a 10th Grand Prix win of the season.

The problem for Bagnaia was Saturday, because he crashed out again. It’s happened too much for three years now, but it looks like he’s finally going to pay for it, and Martin will take the title.

Jorge Martin - 9

He didn’t win the Grand Prix, so you can’t give Jorge Martin a 10 for his Malaysia weekend, but he did all he had to do. When Bagnaia crashed in the Sprint, he rode a pace good enough to keep Marc Marquez at bay; he had a go at beating Bagnaia on Sunday, and then decided to settle for a second place that was perfectly acceptable given his championship position.

It’s Martin’s title to lose with one round to go and that’s largely been because he’s understood this season that it’s better to have a season full of seconds than one half-filled with win and the rest are non-scores.

Enea Bastianini - 7

Two third places for Enea Bastianini is pretty solid on paper, but in reality he was fourth-best all weekend. Bagnaia crashed in the Sprint, and Marc Marquez crashed in the Grand Prix to lift him onto the podium, but Bastianini missed front end confidence and pace on used tyres all weekend.

Alex Marquez - 8

Alex Marquez’s 2024 has been less impactful than last year, and he was unable to reproduce the Sprint-winning form in Sepang he had last year. But a fourth place in the Grand Prix was strong, coming off a front row start he earned from a strong qualifying performance in which he beat his mercurial brother and was beaten by only the two title contenders, who were simply in a different dimension to the rest over one lap.

Pedro Acosta - 7

Fifth place for Pedro Acosta in the Malaysian Grand Prix came with a 13-second deficit to the race winner. He was the best KTM (after Brad Binder and Jack Miller didn’t take the restart), the best non-Ducati, and finished a dry Grand Prix for the first time since Indonesia.

Setting changes he made for the Sprint saw him finish only ninth, but it was a decent enough response on Sunday.

Fabio Quartararo - 8

Fabio Quartararo has in many ways been the standout rider of the flyaways, although the impression he and Yamaha have made in Asia has largely been overshadowed by Ducati’s growing dominance and the championship battle.

The eastern tour ended in a sixth place for Quartararo, despite a front tyre he didn’t like, a rear tyre that wasn’t fresh at the start of the race, and an engine with enough mileage on it for the French rider to mention it to the media after the race.

Sixth isn’t what Quartararo turns up for, but this run of solid results is indicative of some progress from him and Yamaha.

Maverick Vinales - 6

Aprilia’s overheating problems were back in Malaysia and that contributed to a fairly anonymous weekend for Maverick Vinales. He was 19 seconds off the win in Malaysia, a track he won at in 2019, and sandwiched between the two Yamahas.

Alex Rins - 7

It was a positive trip to Sepang for Alex Rins. He was happy enough with the new Yamaha engine and the new electronics, and took a top-10 finish that has been fairly rare for him in 2024.

Marco Bezzecchi - 3.5

Behind both Yamahas and finishing as the worst Ducati rider, it was not a great weekend for Marco Bezzecchi. He was not significantly faster on one-lap speed than his stand-in teammate Andrea Iannone, qualified only 14th, Sprint-ed to a fairly underwhelming 10th, and raced to a similarly dull ninth.

Augusto Fernandez - 7

Top-10s have not been easy to come by this season for Augusto Fernandez, so this 10th place has to be seen as a decent race by the Spaniard, who seems set to be on his way to Yamaha’s MotoGP test team following the conclusion of this season.

Johann Zarco - 7.5

Johann Zarco’s highlight in Malaysia was clearly qualifying. He DNF’d the Sprint with a mechanical, and was 11th in the Grand Prix, which at least made him the best Honda but was not too surprising from the French rider.

But that final lap in Q1 to go fastest and put the RC213V in Q2 was exceptional, and reaffirmed that he is HRC’s best rider at the moment.

Marc Marquez - 7

Second place for Marc Marquez in the Sprint came despite his bike’s low top speed, and his own disfavouring of the Sepang International Circuit, so he gains points for that.

But the Grand Prix was a disappointing second crash-and-remount in two weeks. He came back through the pack with less chaos than in Thailand, and the four points he picked up for 12th could be important in Barcelona in his battle with Enea Bastianini.

Aleix Espargaro - 3

Aleix Espargaro was fairly dreadful in Malaysia. He was the best Aprilia in the Sprint, but still only 12th, and was 13th in the Grand Prix, but beaten by the crashed-and-remounted Marquez.

Overheating of course had its part to play but Espargaro’s MotoGP career seems to have burned out a few weeks early. At least he gets one more final home race, after the final home race he had in May.

Franco Morbidelli - 4

Perhaps this was another weekend of Franco Morbidelli underdelivering on his potential. He was fourth when he crashed out at turn nine, and got back on for 14th, but he also never had the pace of the other Desmosedici GP24s this weekend, even compared to Bastianini who was already a long way off Bagnaia and Martin.

Luca Marini - 5

He beat his teammate, Joan Mir, in qualifying, but Luca Marini was well and truly out-classed by Johann Zarco in Sepang. That didn’t make him unique among the Honda riders, and Marini’s 15th place at least earned him a point, but compared against some recent races Sepang is a reminder of the inconsistency with which the Italian is able to extract the performance from the RC213V.

Raul Fernandez - 2

18th in the Sprint, 16th in the Grand Prix, and ahead only of the two fill-in riders. Not a good race for Raul Fernandez.

Andrea Iannone - 6.5

Andrea Iannone’s return to MotoGP reminded us of two things: Iannone’s talent; and the physical demand modern MotoGP machines place on the riders.

Iannone’s speed was solid enough — in fact, it was quite good — but he missed the fitness to be able to deliver that over a race distance — which, in fairness, is probably fair enough.

Lorenzo Savadori - 6

18th and last in what might be Lorenzo Savadori’s final race of the season, if Miguel Oliveira can come back at Barcelona. But, Savadori will likely be testing post-race in Catalunya, considering three of Aprilia’s four race riders for 2025 will be spending much of the Barcelona test getting accustomed to the RS-GP, so Aprilia might just ask Oliveira to take another week off to keep Savadori sharp.

Takaaki Nakagami - 4

Only one weekend remains in Takaaki Nakagami’s MotoGP career, and he’ll be hoping it goes better than the penultimate one: 17th in the Sprint and a DNF in the GP, so no points for Japan’s out-going lead star.

Joan Mir - 6

Qualifying continues to be Joan Mir’s biggest weak point at the moment. He was just behind his teammate Marini in the Sprint, but was showing some decent pace early in the GP before he crashed having lost his rear brake. Not great on paper but some flashes of light.

Jack Miller - 6.5

Jack Miller’s lap one crash saw him evacuated by ambulance, but at the medical centre it became clear that he was fine. A relief, as was his speed on the weekend.

He was the only KTM rider to go direct from Practice to Q2, and was at least able to hang with the pace of Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder in the Sprint. The GP wasn’t to be but Miller is ending the season in respectable form.

Brad Binder - 6

That seventh was a good result for Brad Binder in the Sprint is probably more damning of where KTM was in Sepang than the South African himself.

He spent a lot of time in Practice messing around with settings to see if the direction he’d gone in with setup through the season had been the right one after all, and discovered it was. But it cost him time to get dialled in with Sepang, which probably didn’t help his results in the session that mattered.

Caught up in Miller’s lap one crash in the GP, Binder didn’t take the restart, making this one of the more disappointing rounds of his season.