Rider Ratings: Factory KTM duo struggle at Emilia Romagna MotoGP

Enea Bastianini notched up his second grand prix win of the 2024 MotoGP season in controversial circumstances at the Emilia Romagna GP.

The last lap overtake on championship leader Jorge Martin had already been hotly debated and will continue to be so over the next few days as the paddock heads to Indonesia.

Martin has extended his championship lead to 24 points despite finishing second, as poleman Francesco Bagnaia crashed while running third amid an odd race for the factory Ducati rider.

Marc Marquez has lost ground in the championship race but a surprise third at Misano has limited the damage and kept him in the picture.

There were top results for the Japanese contingent, while KTM’s stars failed to deliver on good pace.

For the second round in a row, nobody leaves Misano with a perfect score.

Enea Bastianini - 8

Bastianini deserves a lot of credit for how he turned around his form between the sprint and the grand prix. While he wasn’t exactly off the pace, qualifying in third, he just wasn’t at the same level as Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia throughout the weekend. Even long run pace on Friday suggested his battle was for third. But hard work overnight - with the Italian saying he was in his garage at 10pm on Saturday poring over data - meant he was a factor in the victory battle from the off. The controversial nature of his last lap pass on Martin aside, the fact he was in a position to do so and get the job done deserves a lot of merit.

Jorge Martin - 7

On a weekend in which Martin really needed to stamp a bit of authority after his strategy gaffe in the San Marino GP, he just seemed second-best throughout. While improving on his qualifying from the previous Misano round, he wasn’t a match for Bagnaia. And a needless mistake in the sprint, when exceeding track limits led to a warning which distracted, cost him a likely victory. While he was strong in the grand prix, it wasn’t enough to be out of Bastianini’s reach and - opinions on that incident aside - he left himself exposed. He has grown his championship lead, yes, but not convincingly.

Marc Marquez - 6

The second Misano weekend was something a bump back down to Earth for Marquez after back-to-back wins in funny conditions. All weekend his pace was never enough to threaten the leaders and without Bagnaia’s crash in the grand prix, fourth was really the best he could hope for. Another costly qualifying crash left him in seventh, and perhaps with a better starting grid he could have invented something better for himself.

Francesco Bagnaia - 5

Judging Bagnaia’s weekend is difficult, because six feels like it’s too hight but any less would be harsh. From Friday, Bagnaia was brilliant. His one-lap pace was strong and his race pace was scary. He put that all together on Saturday to take pole by a comfortable margin with a new lap record and won the sprint after Martin’s error. But he didn’t get the start again on Saturday, so Martin’s mistake was likely his only chance at that win. In the grand prix, his tyres didn’t work properly for the first half of the race and then he crashed trying to make up ground in third. It was a costly error as it gives Martin a 24-point lead in the standings. On a day to limit the damage, Bagnaia made life harder for himself.

Marco Bezzecchi - 7

The VR46 rider couldn’t scale the front row heights of the previous Misano round this weekend, but sixth on the grid was solid. Eighth in the sprint wasn’t much to write home about, but fourth in the grand prix was a just reward for being the only rider to gamble on the soft rear tyre. More than that was tough but he didn’t disgrace himself in terms of distance to the leading GP23 of Marquez.

Franco Morbidelli - 5

The Pramac rider looked like his old self in the previous Misano round, but there was no hint of a repeat podium challenge this weekend. Tenth in qualifying was followed up by ninth in the sprint and fifth in the grand prix. Solid results, but flying well below what the other GP24s were doing all weekend.

Maverick Vinales - 5

Aprilia made a small step forward for the Emilia Romagna GP, but not enough to really trouble the frontrunners. Vinales was the best of the RS-GPs, qualifying in eighth. But he came away with no points in 10th in the sprint and was 15.4s away from the win in a sixth gifted to him by Fabio Quartararo running out fuel on the last lap.

Fabio Quartararo - 8

The 2021 world champion was never going to relive the joys of the previous Emilia Romagna GP, but he showed his class once again on an M1 that has no grip to qualify well and no speed to race. Starting 10th on the grid, he worked his way to seventh in the sprint and repeated that result in the grand prix. Before he ran out fuel, he was on course to get Yamaha’s first top fix of the season.

Aleix Espargaro - 4

There was nothing to write home about Espargaro’s final weekend on Italian soil with Aprilia. Though he made it into Q2, he trailed his team-mate in 11th and was always in his shadow in the races. Twelfth in the sprint and eighth in the GP, over seven seconds shy of Vinales, is not the results the Spaniard should be doing on that bike.

Alex Marquez - 4

What gives Alex Marquez a boost in our ratings is the fact he came through from last on the grid to finish ninth. But that costly qualifying almost certainly denied him a much better set of results for Gresini this weekend.

Miguel Oliveira - 4

The Portuguese rider’s Misano weekend was largely average. While getting out of Q1 was a good effort, he came away with no points in the sprint and got as high as 10th from 12th on the grid in Sunday’s race. The only solace the Trackhouse rider can take is that he isn’t the only struggling Aprilia right now.

Joan Mir - 6

Having missed the San Marino GP with illness, just being at full fitness for this weekend was a victory in itself. Outpaced by his Honda team-mate most of the weekend, Mir stepped it up in the grand prix to score his and HRC’s best result of the season in 11th. Not a result that will grab headlines, but one that shows the 2020 world champion is capable of getting the best out of a bad bike.

Luca Marini - 6

To give either factory Honda rider a differing rating would be harsh given the achievement of the grand prix. Marini wasn’t exactly far off his team-mate Mir in Sunday’s race in 12th, which marked his best of the season. Marini also qualified as top Honda and its best rider in the sprint in 16th.

Raul Fernandez - 4

The remainder of this season appears to be mostly a test session for Fernandez on the Trackhouse Aprilia as he looks to help the Italian marque improve for 2025. That said, he was never match for the other Aprilias and 13th from 14th on the grid isn’t a great return.

Fabio Di Giannantonio - 5

The VR46 rider was lucky to even take part in the rest of the weekend after a heavy crash in Practice on Friday risked aggravating the shoulder he dislocated recently. Just missing a Q2 place, DiGia was 13th in the sprint and 14th in the grand prix having been forced to serve a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits. Without that, he was on for a slightly better 11th-place finish. More than that, though, was tough as his shoulder lost strength.

Johann Zarco - 3

Having ended Friday practice in an impressive 12th, Zarco’s weekend just went backwards. He was nowhere near a Q2 entry and qualified third-best Honda. In the sprint he was second-best Honda and in the GP he was third-best again in 15th and a few seconds from the leading HRC runners.

Jack Miller - 3

The Australian’s Emilia Romagna GP weekend will be one he will want to forget in a hurry. After the highs of his MotoGP future with Pramac being secured, Miller just struggled for pace all weekend. Qualifying down in 19th conditioned his races, and while he was up into the top 10 at one stage of the GP he faded out of the points to 16th due to a vibration issue.

Takaaki Nakagami - 2

Nakagami’s LCR Honda didn’t look like it had much in the way of new items on it compared to his HRC counterparts. And the results certainly suggest that too, as he qualified down in 20th, was 19th in the sprint and 17th in the GP - over 10 seconds behind the leading Honda of Mir.

Augusto Fernandez - 2

Vibration issues hindered Fernandez in the grand prix, as he struggled to a distant 18th. But beyond this, 18th on the grid left him with little possibility to make up much ground. Never happy on the RC16, Fernandez suffered another confidence-sapping event.

Brad Binder - 5

Binder put in a frustrating weekend on the factory KTM. Coming through Q1 and then putting his RC16 fourth was brilliant. Tyre warm-up issues saw him plummet out of podium contention to sixth in the sprint, while a crash in the grand prix as he was in the frame for a top five result proved a wasted opportunity. Binder gets some credit for remounting and finishing the race.

Pedro Acosta - 5

The Tech3 rookie’s weekend more or less mimicked Binder’s in that he had great pace, was quick in qualifying but squandered it in the grand prix. Acosta was the only KTM inside Q2 directly after Friday and held onto fifth having started there in the sprint. Running in that top group in the grand prix, he crashed for the second Sunday in a row.