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Quiz Val on his Italian Grand Prix MotoGP rider rankings
🕑 Added 2025-06-23 05:21:48 +0000 UTCHere's Val's best-to-worst ranking of every rider's performance at Mugello, ready for you to interrogate.
Agree? Disagree? Got a question? Leave your thoughts in the comments on this post and Val will address them in his next Rider Rankings Debrief video.
There was a distinctly Spanish flavour to this year's Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, with seven Spanish podiums on Sunday across the three classes - which included the increasingly familiar Marquez brothers MotoGP double act.
Not so coincidentally, Spaniards also lock out the podium in our post-weekend rankings.
Qualifying: 1st Sprint: 1st GP: 1st
See you in 2026.
Qualifying: 3rd Sprint: 2nd GP: 2nd
Alex Marquez hoped to have an answer to his brother at a track that tends to favour him and not Marc - but seemed to accept the inevitable in both of the races.
Questions will be asked over whether he's been making life too easy for his brother in battle, and there's probably some truth to that. But it would've been easy to get carried away in those battles and bring home a lot less than 29 points, so it's up to you whether you view that as discretion or defeatism.
Qualifying: 5th Sprint: 4th GP: DNF
There's going to be a little bit of criticism in paragraphs two and three, so I want to undercut that criticism by making it clear: Maverick Vinales was maybe the fastest rider in MotoGP relative to machinery this weekend and KTM's 2024 decision to bring him in is ageing like the finest wine.
But his struggles at Bucine created that familiar, frustrating Vinales situation where the overtakes that needed to come just weren't coming quickly enough. His sprint was conditioned by being stuck behind Fabio Quartararo, his grand prix hurt by the laps spent behind Franco Morbidelli - who then eliminated him from the race.
His mantra in response to that is "if you are first or second, you avoid all of this. So let's go first or second". He is talented enough to think that's possible, but that's not a rounded strategy.
Qualifying: 10th Sprint: 6th GP: 5th
Marco Bezzecchi again didn't qualify well - despite hints of a single-lap breakthrough in the Aragon test - and complicated his sprint by breaking off some winglets against Pedro Acosta's KTM.
In the end, though, he was sixth behind five faster riders on faster bikes (well, I guess you can have the Aprilia/KTM debate at Mugello) in the sprint, and fifth behind four faster riders on faster bikes in the main race.
Job done, mission complete.
Qualifying: 11th Sprint: 8th GP: 7th
If this wasn't Raul Fernandez's best weekend in MotoGP, it certainly was his best in a long, long, long time - and it comes amid a run of form that looks vaguely career-saving.
It wouldn't be Fernandez if it didn't feature an early Friday crash that left him in so-so shape for the rest of the weekend, but from there on he looked largely unimpeachable - and he did well to grit his teeth and weather some hand pain to bring it home on Sunday, even if that hand pain now sounds like it may be a bit of a poorly-timed concern for Assen next week.
Qualifying: 2nd Sprint: 3rd GP: 4th
Any talk of a big breakthrough for Pecco Bagnaia at Aragon felt wilfully ignorant of, to borrow a turn of phrase that Cal Crutchlow was quite fond of in media debriefs, "the reality of the situation".
And being humbled at Mugello - where Bagnaia had won in 2022 and swept the 2023 and 2024 weekends - was the counterargument.
Whatever the true balance of power between the GP24 and the GP25, it's clear Bagnaia just doesn't have Marc Marquez's pace right now, and hasn't had it all season. Bagnaia struggles with the front in traffic, Marquez doesn't - but Marquez also has the reserves of performance to 'summon' the race lead at will.
Bagnaia is well-aware that's the situation right now and hasn't shied away from him. That's to his credit - but there's no real reason why it should suddenly change.
Qualifying: 7th Sprint: 5th GP: 3rd
This was a very positive weekend for Di Giannantonio, but it's hard not to feel that he's still not quite entirely capitalising on the opportunity of the factory Ducati contract.
Qualifying was the missing piece here, as it has been on several occasions, with Di Giannantonio insisting he just doesn't feel the extra kick of grip offered by the new rubber - specifically mid-corner, in turning with the throttle.
He had very good pace in both races and did well to snatch the podium from a tyre-hobbled Bagnaia, but may well have been the rider with the best chance of taking on Marc Marquez at Mugello in race trim - if only he'd qualified higher.
Qualifying: 4th Sprint: 10th GP: 14th
Fabio Quartararo places as high as this on the strength of a qualifying effort Yamaha stablemate Miguel Oliveira accurately described as "amazing" - especially as he'd hurt his shoulder (though, it turns out, never did dislocate it) in a Friday practice crash.
Chatter was the big limitation in race trim, and he was getting humiliated on the straights. It meant no points in the sprint, but the Sunday race should've been more fruitful before he ran out of stamina as a consequence of the injury, struggling to brake and getting muscled down to 14th.
Even on a grumpy weekend like this, he was the clear best Yamaha rider.
Qualifying: 21st Sprint: 12th GP: 10th
Ai Ogura doesn't like Mugello very much and wasn't at peak fitness coming off his tibia fracture (at a famously difficult track where pain didn't interfere but the changes of direction made things tough), so basically fulfilled his mission of a solid weekend.
He wasn't particularly notable in Friday - and was notably lacking in Q1 - but looked a whole lot like his familiar MotoGP self in both races, hoovering up respectable points on Sunday.
Qualifying: 12th Sprint: 9th GP: 12th
Even with a Q2 error - understandable given he's fresh off arm pump surgery so will have found the Q1-to-Q2 gauntlet physically taxing, especially at Mugello - Fermin Aldeguer had every possibility to score big points here.
But he was slow off the line and generally all over the place in the sprint, then went off in Bezzecchi's slipstream in the main race at San Donato, caught out by Bezzecchi making a move on Quartararo.
This has not been the tidiest rookie season but it won't worry Ducati or Aldeguer, who described himself as "happy" - especially as he'd salvaged points in both races.
His pace on Sunday after the error was very, very good.
Qualifying: 17th Sprint: 13th GP: 13th
Oliveira described being the top Yamaha in the grand prix as something that just "makes it less worse" and pointed to the 26-second gap to the front.
So if he won't use the opportunity to sing his praises, I will. If Yamaha is telling the truth that the fight between Jack Miller and Oliveira to not be the rider replaced by Toprak Razgatlioglu is still open, Mugello was an Oliveira win in that regard. It was the first weekend in a while that he was fast enough to be important to Yamaha.
The M1 was a poor package here, vibration-limited and vulnerable in battle, and Oliveira didn't capitalise at all on its one major strength - single-lap pace - but the overall impression of the weekend is a positive one.
Qualifying: 19th Sprint: 15th GP: 16th
Between tests at Motegi, Taka Nakagami - standing in for Luca Marini -was largely given free rein by Honda to treat this as a proper race weekend, and looked every bit like one of the regular riders.
Too rigid on the bike on Friday but clearly growing into it, he didn't have that extra bite of qualifying pace like Johann Zarco nor Joan Mir's pace - but was comparable to both, much to his credit given his inevitable race rustiness relative to the full-timers.
Expect Aleix Espargaro on the bike at Assen as Nakagami heads back to Japan, having acquitted himself well at Mugello.
Qualifying: 18th Sprint: 14th GP: 11th
The Honda was not good at all at Mugello - vibrating, off the pace in its long on-throttle corners, and uncompetitive on the big straight - but it also feels like its riders didn't get the most out of it.
Mir was its best race rider, as he so often is, but had qualified just half a tenth ahead of a test rider in Nakagami - which you just cannot accept, even if it didn't seem to hurt his weekend too much.
He experimented with Honda's much-hyped carbon swingarm on Saturday, then went back to the standard one and used it to reasonable effect on Sunday.
Qualifying: 15th Sprint: DNF GP: 9th
As is often the case, Brad Binder's weekend spiralling can be traced back to individual moments - specifically a crash late on on Friday when he looked to have the potential for an automatic Q2 spot.
But the fact that potential was suddenly gone on Saturday morning is a familiar story in itself. Binder was limited by front chatter and the resulting understeer - yet while he should never be expected to be MotoGP's best qualifier, he is letting himself down over one lap.
He was effectively blameless in his first-corner sprint exit, and rode a credible Sunday race despite a recurring lack of faith in the front axle.
Qualifying: 8th Sprint: DNF GP: 8th
Pedro Acosta pointed out after the race that he has been the 'first' KTM in every grand prix since Le Mans last month. Maybe so, on the whole, but he certainly wasn't the KTM standout here, outperformed fairly conclusively by Vinales.
Chatter in qualifying contributed to that, but he looked to have made up for it in the sprint, only to run wide in Vinales' slipstream at Bucine and tuck the front as he tried to prepare the straight.
The lost mileage cost Acosta the opportunity to fully evaluate the hard front tyre, and he equipped it again on Sunday - but the slightly cooler conditions guaranteed the gamble backfired, even if he did have enough in the end to just see off Binder.
Qualifying: 20th Sprint: 17th GP: 17th
Unlike Nakagami, Lorenzo Savadori was in his usual test rider mode during his latest injury stand-in ride, trialling new Aprilia RS-GP developments that he says are looking promising.
And they did look reasonably promising in his hands, with Savadori even managing to outqualify Ogura and run competitively in the sprint - though he did run out of front grip at the halfway point on Sunday.
Qualifying: 14th Sprint: DNF GP: DNF
"After the last month of great moments, I was thinking, 'OK, I need to accept going back to more reasonable results'. But it's not reasonable now. It's two mistakes in a row, and this I do not accept."
Zarco maximised qualifying on an RC213V that really disappointed this weekend, then got nothing at all out of both races - which makes his continued sixth place in the championship even more remarkable.
He felt off his game again through Friday and Saturday, convinced that the bike wasn't functioning in the Mugello heat, though was totally blameless for his early exit in the sprint; going around the outside at San Donato is a risk, but given Honda's form here it was unquestionably worth taking.
Sunday brought a better feeling on the bike - which probably contributed to an early crash at Bucine as he tried to run a tight line while chasing after Binder.
Qualifying: 9th Sprint: 18th GP: 15th
Alex Rins' improved single-lap form is catching the eye, but remains a byproduct of grabbing slipstreams from faster bikes.
His sprint was initially compromised by Vinales' Turn 1 lunge sending Acosta into his path and forcing him to check up a bit, then ruined completely as he had to go off track to avoid slamming into Miller. His grand prix was simply an exercise in tyre destruction.
An anonymous weekend overall, but one the Yamaha bears most of the responsibility for.
Qualifying: 13th Sprint: 16th GP: DNF
Miller's recent form on the Yamaha has been really difficult to evaluate. Is he a clear second-best on the M1, or there in the scrap with Rins and Oliveira? Who knows, because the weekends haven't been clean - and they don't get much less clean than the Mugello one.
A crash on Friday meant he had to fight for Q2 on his spare bike, on which the ride height device wasn't quite right. A gamble on the hard front in the sprint was a catastrophe, turning the Arrabbiatas into a "complete f***ing nightmare".
On Sunday, the clutch was slipping on the opening laps, a wing somehow came off (without contact, according to Miller), and then a fuel delivery issue rendered the M1 "unrideable".
It was one issue too many, with Miller bringing it in to end a "sobering" weekend.
Qualifying: 16th Sprint: 11th GP: DNF
There were some tentatively positive flickers of form from Enea Bastianini through the weekend, though only the upcoming rounds will tell us whether that was a step on his end or something Mugello-specific, given the RC16 proved quite handy in Italy.
In any case, that tentative positivity - with the qualifying performance still suboptimal - was damaged further by an opening-lap crash, with Bastianini trying to make up for time lost in battle with Zarco and losing the front at the final corner.
Qualifying: 6th Sprint: 7th GP: 6th
Morbidelli torpedoed a quicker rival's weekend with a move that was never on and did not sound all that broken up about it. That last part doesn't contribute to his ranking, but it grates all the same.
In terms of performance, he continues to insist that the biggest limiting factor for himself and the Matteo Flamigni-headed #21 crew is a lack of familiarity with one another's working ways, which leads to them starting weekends slowly even if they tend to recover form by Sunday.
There's a hint of that but it also feels like Morbidelli continues to find the Ducati GP24 a bit of a headache in terms of managing it over a race distance, which was the prevailing and overriding factor in his largely disappointing 2024.
But he has clearly improved - which also does create more of an incentive to barge into fellow podium contenders.
Qualifying: 22nd Sprint: 19th GP: 18th
It is now officially time for Honda to start asking itself serious questions about the viability of the Somkiat Chantra experiment, what with the Thai racer struggling to approach even the form he'd had in pre-season - a bewildering state of affairs for a rookie.
The mitigating factor is that Chantra did go into the barrier on Friday, and admitted to feeling dizzy afterwards, so was clearly not in the best shape. His Sunday ride was only notable for a double long-lap penalty triggered by him stalling the bike on the formation lap - thus requiring a grid procedure breach by the team.
He deserves a cleaner run for the purposes of evaluation, further removed from this crash and the arm pump surgery, but the signs are not good right now.
Comments
JD
Tires are shredded in the corners, not on the straights, so the tow has nothing to do with it. But your question is interesting brcause of the difference between MM and Pecco, ehich as you noted did basically the same thing in the race (Alex as well, but maybe not by that much). Regarding the tow: Pecco could not use the tow because he just wasn't fast enough in the last corner before the "straight" (which really isn't straight in Mugello). You need to perfectly time the overtake on the straight so you have the tow at the beginning (so very good last corner and perfect drive out of it) and then move past the rider in front just when the pitlane exit comes. If you just get the tow at that point (about 50% down the straight), you will just overshoot, miss the braking point and go wide (or worse). Regarding the tire management: as far as I understand it, a worn tire does not have edge grip anymore. Riders try to use edge grip as little as possible if they can avoid it, taking different lines, being very smooth with the throttle and working with their body weight to minimize load. They only use full edge grip when trying to overtake or make up a lot of time in one lap (usually preparing for an overtake). So Pecco did use more edge grip than Marc while battling each other it seems. How Marc can do this, well... I guess everyone likes to know that, especially all other riders 😬
Reise Childs
Frankie should be last I’m sick off the shit he gets up to personally I like him (I guess) but then it all resets when he does shit like this also feel DiGi deserves a bit more purely bc he showed that he could match the leaders pace near enough and has clearly made a big step which the double champion factory guy hasn’t
Xepha
About Pecco's ranking; the way I read his battle with the two Marquez brothers is that he fought very hard with them in the opening laps, but never managed to get far enough ahead of either of them to break the tow, all while damaging his front tire and condemning himself to running wide at T1 for the remaining laps. As a new fan, I'm trying to learn: was this a tactical error? It seems like he could have noticed these 'tow' dynamics, let Alex and Marc fight a bit more while keeping himself involved using the tow from them, then pounced on them once their tires were more worn than his. Indeed the tactics I'm describing here are essentially what Marc did to him...though I suppose Alex was a willing accomplice to that, and may not have been if Pecco and Marc's positions were reversed.
