Mid-season report: Pramac better than the factory team but Pecco leads the way

There’s one manufacturer that has dominated this first part of the MotoGP season. We’re talking about Ducati of course, with the manufacturer demonstrating a superiority that is at times embarassing for its rivals. Of the eight Ducati Desmosedicis on the grid, six currently place inside the top ten in the general standings. The Italian manufacturer is dominating the championship, while team Pramac leads the way in the team standings (though that might change now that Bastianini is back with the factory team). Ducati also top the constructors’ classification, having amassed a 132 point lead over KTM after just eight rounds. Only at Austin did Ducati fail to score maximum points in the constructors’ championship, with Alex Rins’ second place in the sprint and win on Sunday awarding Honda 34 points compared to Ducati’s 32. On five occasions, the Bolognese manufacturer has scored the full 37 points, while in Argentina and Jerez it collected 34.

Ducati Lenovo Team: 8

The factory Ducati team tops the riders’ standings with Francesco Bagnaia, almost perfect up until now. The Italian rider made a few small mistakes early on, crashing at Termas de Rio Hondo and at Austin while leading the race. Those zeros took 45 points away from the 2022 MotoGP champion, else he would now hold an 81-point lead over Jorge Martin. Pecco’s other DNF results from contact with Maverick Vinales at Le Mans, but despite having failed to finish three of the main races, Bagnaia still leads the way in the general standings with a 35-point lead.

On the other side of the garage, Enea Bastianini’s season will only really begin when MotoGP crosses the Channel on 6 August. The Italian has had to sit out a good part of the season so far after fracturing his collarbone at Portimao. After returning at Mugello, he scored two top tens before crashing at Assen. So it’s hard to assess Bastianini’s season, the rider having come to the factory team to chase the title with Bagnaia only to have to miss half the season. It’s impossible to grade Enea then, and so the team vote also loses a point. That said, by the end of the season, Ducati Lenovo Team may be back on top across all the classifications, which would up its current grade.

Prima Pramac Racing: 9

A memorable first half of the season for the Italian team, which leads the team standings thanks to twelve podiums and two race wins. The team’s most important acquisition over the winter was not a rider, but rather Gino Borsoi. The former team Aspar manager, who has six riders’ titles and a team title to his name in 125GP and Moto3, has returned to Jorge Martin with whom he worked at team Aspar when the Spaniard debuted in Moto3 in 2015. The following year saw Martin, with Borsoi still as team manager, score his first world championship podium at Brno. The return of the Italian manager seems to have further motivated the Spaniard who’s never been so consistent in MotoGP. Between the sprint and main races, he has amassed three wins and eight podiums so far this year, eight of which came consecutively, results that see him place second in the championship. He is Pecco Bagnaia’s main rival for the title.

Alongside Martin, Johann Zarco is also enjoying his best ever MotoGP season. The Frenchman has had some difficulty in the sprints but has put together strong races on Sunday, particularly in the final stages, to score four podiums already. Zarco is still seeking his first MotoGP win but in eight races, he’s also scored as many podiums as he did in the last two seasons combined. His aim then is to reach the top step of the rostrum at least once this year so as to cement his place in MotoGP history.

Mooney VR46 Racing Team: 9

The team headed up by Uccio Salucci is also focused on continuity with Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini. The pair have taken another step towards competitiveness thanks to three races wins for #72 and six further podiums, two of which achieved by Rossi’s brother. Mooney VR46 lies second in the team standings, ahead of the factory Ducati team and behind team Pramac. But the latter fields GP23 machines while Bez and Marco must rely ‘only on the old’ GP22. And so it is that, despite slightly inferior results to the Ducati satellite team, they receive the same grade.

This might be Marco Bezzecchi’s defining season in that, after what we saw last year in Argentina, he finally achieved his first MotoGP win, albeit in the win. And he didn’t have to wait long for his second, which came at a dry Le Mans, before going on to win the Sprint at Assen. Luca Marini scored his first MotoGP podiums with the Sprint in Argentina and the long race in Texas, where he finished second to Alex Rins. The Mooney VR46 Racing rider lies third and sixth in the championship, 36 and 96 points from leader Pecco Bagnaia, an excellent showing for a private team that has last year’s (albeit championship-winning) bike.

Gresini Racing: 5

After an incredible 2022 season, the team headed up by Nadia Padovani lost its main rider, who has moved to the factory Ducati team, and has replaced him with two-time world champion Alex Marquez. The Spaniard hasn’t been short on speed so far, scoring a third-place finish in Texas. But unfortunately, that performance was followed by a series of crashes, many of which occurred while Alex was fighting for the podium. The move from Honda to Ducati seems to have given the Spaniard new lifeblood, but he continues to make mistakes that compromise the end result. He now lies tenth in the standings, just one point behind Fabio Quartararo who is having his worst MotoGP season to date. 

And it’s an even more complicated season for Fabio Di Giannantonio. The Italian has scored just 34 points so far, reaching the top ten on only four occasions and suffering many crashes. This means he lies further down the standings, 16 points behind Enea Bastianini. And the crashes in testing didn’t help, compromising Diggia’s work early on in the season. If he wants to keep his place in MotoGP next year, he’ll need to shift gear quick, before September, when the final pieces of the MotoGP and WorldSBK puzzle should fall into place.