2021 MotoGP mid-season report card

The 2021 MotoGP World Championship series has once again proved why it is the very peak of world motorcycle racing. There has been plenty of spills, thrills and drama to match so far in the season.

With the riders now on a mid-season break, we thought we'd take a look back at the season so-far and rate each of the key players on their performance to the halfway point.

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There’s an undisputed star of the 2021 MotoGP season and it’s Monster Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo. Leading the championship by 34 points, you’d have to think it would be more if it wasn’t for his fair share of bad luck and strange occurrences in the last nine races.

There was the arm pump in Jerez, which saw him tumble from a commanding 1.6-second lead and a certain 25 points at the half-way point, eventually crossing the line in 13th for three points.

And then there was zipper-gate in Barcelona (which, but the way, we’re still waiting for a logical explanation on just how his velcro’d-down zipper managed to find its way down to the Frenchman’s belly button). With five laps to go, Quartararo was on race-leader Miguel Oliveira’s back wheel and one-second clear of Johann Zarco in third.

He crossed the line in third, but a late and distracted run off track cost him a three-second penalty before he was handed another penalty for his bare-chested antics. It meant he was demoted to sixth, his 20-point haul quickly halved to 10.

We can’t talk about stars without putting forward the name of a quiet Australian who’s leading the Moto2 world championship and who has just inked a deal with the Tech3 KTM squad in MotoGP next year. With eight podiums from nine starts and, for the first time, both the equipment and the mindset to go all the way, Remy Gardner has had a sensational opening half of the season and sits 31 points clear in the chase.

Pramac Ducati rider Johann Zarco, who at the tail end of 2019 looked to be staring down the barrel of retirement, has gelled beautifully with the latest Ducati GP21 and currently sits second in the standings.

Always there or thereabouts, the double Moto2 world champion has racked up four second-place finishes in the first half of the season, and you can’t argue with the Frenchman’s very own words after the ninth round in Assen when he stated “the victory will come.”

The last rider to be awarded a shining star gong for the first half of 2021 is seventh-placed Miguel Oliveira. After a lackluster five races to open the season where he couldn’t break his way into the top-10, the last four have been brilliant and consistent, picking up 56 points since the sixth round with a win and three second-place finishes.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Suzuki GSX-RRs ridden by reigning world champ Joan Mir and Alex Rins couldn’t put a wheel wrong. Once regarded by many as the best-rounded motorcycle in the paddock, it’s anything but after six short months.

The problem isn’t a lack of all of the things that made the Suzuki great last year – that’s all still there – the problem is the rest of the field has moved on. Namely in the form of a holeshot device which, not only gets you off the line quicker and more efficiently than bikes without it (and with the pair’s terrible qualifying record, they need it), but it allows the rider to alter the ride height of the motorcycle as it accelerates out of corners, which decreases wheelies therefore increasing acceleration.

At least Joan Mir, who sits a very credible fourth place overall, can see the funny side. “I don’t know how many riders I’ve overtaken in the first half of the season, we may not have the pole position, but for [passing riders] we have the record,” laughed the reigning world champ.

And while Aussie Jack Miller has scored two wins to Pecco Bagnaia’s none so far, the young Italian has scored more points, just as many podiums and registered fewer race crashes.

Miller gave himself a “B-minus or C-plus” when he was asked to score the first half of his first season in the Lenovo Ducati squad.
Despite doubling his premier-class win record with a win at Jerez and in Le Mans, it was just as many DNFs, one in Portugal and the last time out at Assen, that have cost him one of the top three places in the standings heading into the summer break.

“But the last time we had a crash, we bounced back with a victory, so we plan on doing that,” he said, of the first of the double headers in Austria next month.

The fact that Marc Marquez sits 10th in the standings after coming back from an injury that could have ended his career, and after missing the first two races of the season, should really put the eight-time world champ in the star category. But there were more lows than were highs for the Spanish superstar in the seven races he competed in since Portugal.

Certainly, his win in Germany to continue his undefeated streak at the Sachsenring will go down as one of the sport’s most stirring injury comebacks, but it wasn’t all champagne and celebrations. For the first time in his career he crashed out of three consecutive races (France, Italy and Catalunya), he had the worst-ever qualifying of his career in Assen (20th) and some of the dirty tactics he used during qualifying sessions this year have been those of a desperate man.

And Aprilia, the manufacturer who re-entered the premier class in 2015 looks to be finally getting somewhere near competitive in the class of kings. Consistently in the top six, it wouldn’t appear so tardy if it wasn’t for the budget and dogged determination of KTM, who since joining the category in 2017, has already scored 12 podium finishes including four wins.

The biggest shock of the 2021 MotoGP season is Maverick Vinales’ split from the factory Yamaha squad. Shocking not because of the act itself –Johann Zarco did the same thing in 2019 when he tore up his Factory KTM contract one year early – but shocking because Maverick is a talent capable of fighting for the championship, and his team and his motorcycle are leading the standings, albeit in the hands of his younger teammate.

Despite six top-10 finishes and two podiums, including one win, it’s a far cry from his first season with the squad when he won three of the first five races after topping every session in the pre-season tests. His next win would come 30 races later (Phillip Island in 2018) and he’s only won another two since. But it wasn’t his win rate that broke the relationship in the end, it was the worst-ever finish of his entire GP career; 19th and last in this year’s German Grand Prix.

His former teammate Valentino Rossi is having a shocking season too, and by far the worst of his long and celebrated career. With nine world titles, an unrivalled dedication and more GP starts than any other rider, it all looks to be coming to end for the Doctor, who is sitting 19th in the championship, one place behind rookie Jorge Martin who has missed four races due to injury.

Shocking also, but in a wonderful sense, the way Jorge Martin burst onto the premier-class scene as a rookie was nothing short of spectacular. Applauded for finishing in the points in his first-ever MotoGP race, he started his second from pole position and rode his one-year-old Pramac Ducati to his maiden podium finish. A crash in practice at Portugal sidelined the talented Spaniard, but expect him to have a strong second-half of the season as he looks to outperform his more experienced teammate.

For a man touted as a 2021 championship favourite, Alex Rins has had a season to forget so far in 2021. Fourteenth place and with 33 points is not where the Spaniard should be placed heading into the summer break. After crashing out of three races (Portugal, Le Mans and Italy) while in podium contention was bad enough, but crashing into a parked car while texting on his pushbike ahead of the Spanish GP in Catalunya and fracturing his radius was almost unforgivable. He needs some strong results in the last half of the year.

Two-time MotoGP winner Danilo Petrucci needs to find some strong finishes this year too, or the likeable Italian will find himself out of a job for the 2022 season. Same for his teammate Iker Lecuona. With the two Tech3 KTM riders on the same machinery that Oliveira is riding at the pointy end of races, and rookie Moto2 sensation Raul Fernandez breathing down their necks, it’s now or never for one of the oldest guys in the paddock, and one of the youngest.

With just four points to his name, Aprilia Racing’s Lorenzo Savadori may not even get the chance to prove his worth. With everything pointing to a Vinales defection to the Italian squad, it looks like the 2015 Superstock 1000 champ’s days in the premier class might be numbered.

Lastly, Honda. Late to the season and still injured, Marc Marquez is the highest-placed RCV213V rider. Pol Espargaro’s dream switch to the Repsol Honda squad hasn’t been what he hoped, he’s in 12th place on equal points as LCR Idemitsu rider Taka Nakagami, and Alex Marquez is mired down in 15th. Marc’s win in Germany was the first for the once-dominant Honda since Valencia in 2019. And it’s not for lack of rider talent.