Le Mans MotoGP: Motorsport.com's rider ratings
The fifth round of the 2016 MotoGP season will be remembered mainly for its crashes aplenty, but which riders stood out among the chaos? Valentin Khorounzhiy surveys the field.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Jorge Lorenzo – 10
On a weekend where all of his rivals, without exception, dropped the ball in one way or another, Lorenzo was relentless and methodical, which allowed him a massive, comfortable advantage in both qualifying and the race. Three of his rivals crashing certainly helped, but it's tough to envision a scenario in which somebody could've beaten the Spaniard on Sunday.
Valentino Rossi – 7
Given the upturn in his single-lap pace in 2016, it was strange to see how much Rossi struggled on Friday and Saturday, the Italian consistently lapping a few tenths off his teammate. The race, as it so often is, was a marked improvement and he was likely going to finish second even without the cavalcade of crashes - but the intra-team battle was well and truly lost.
Marc Marquez - 6
Did Marquez try too hard to compensate for his Honda bike's obvious shortcomings on acceleration? Probably. There was no way, of course, that the two-time champion could've known that attrition would be this high, but he desperately needs to make sure he stays upright every race if he's to take the fight to Lorenzo and Rossi in the points. At Le Mans, he didn't - and all the impressive laps he logged during the weekend came to naught.
Dani Pedrosa - 6
At the height of the rumours tying him to a potential Yamaha switch, Pedrosa went missing for the entire Le Mans weekend - and re-appeared only at the chequered flag. He deserves credit for battling through in the race to salvage solid points for Honda, but he only started that far down because of a qualifying crash - and the pace, it seems, simply wasn't there.
Andrea Iannone - 5
It was another weekend of not delivering on massive potential for Iannone, who looked like being the only rider genuinely capable of giving Lorenzo a fair fight on pure pace, but just couldn't keep his bike upright. 'The Maniac' struggled to explain either his qualifying crash or his crash in the race - and, in a way, is very lucky that Ducati teammate Dovizioso also fell off.
Andrea Dovizioso - 5
Choosing between Iannone and Dovizioso for 2017 won't be an easy task for Ducati, and events at Le Mans certainly didn't make it any easier. Roundly beaten by Iannone over one lap, Dovizioso sprinted ahead at the start, but appeared to be struggling to keep pace even before his fall. The crash was only really his first major mistake of the campaign - but Ducati would probably prefer he dropped it on a track where the bike is less quick.
Maverick Vinales - 8
The very weekend that Cal Crutchlow pointed out that the most coveted rider on the MotoGP market was yet to score a podium, that particular wrong was finally made right. Yes, it wouldn't have happened without the crashes, and yes, Vinales did once again drop ground at the start - but he hunkered down and muscled himself back into position to profit from the accidents. This was long, long overdue.
Aleix Espargaro - 5
After the highs of Jerez, it was back down to earth for Aleix, who had no answer to his teammate's pace at Le Mans and tumbled down the order in the grand prix after a rather promising start. Still, after he'd had to fight his way through Q1, a sixth-place finish is decent enough and the improvements he's made after a horrific start to the season are clear to see.
Pol Espargaro - 7
It seemed like Le Mans could've been a career-defining weekend for Pol, as he was very quick on Friday and Saturday - easily the second-best Yamaha and a legitimate contender for "best of the rest" behind Lorenzo. That form, unfortunately, didn't materialise on Sunday, but, after surviving an early-race scare, Pol did bring it home, continuing his run of enviable consistency in 2016.
Bradley Smith - 4
Smith seemed very, very far off teammate Pol Espargaro in practice, to the point where qualifying just two spots behind the Spaniard seemed a job well done. And, by those standards, the KTM-bound rider did a solid enough job to stick with Espargaro throughout much of the race, but that will detail is likely to be forgotten in the wake of his rather painful-looking late-race crash.
Cal Crutchlow - 4
First, the good part: Crutchlow was the second-best Honda in qualifying, maintaining his streak of consistently making the top 10 on the grid. Unfortunately, that's scant consolation next to the measly five points he has in the standings - and not falling off at Le Mans would've gone a long way towards fixing his championship position.
Danilo Petrucci - 9
Holding on through a full weekend of MotoGP racing after a spell on the sidelines and a broken hand yet to fully heal is a serious feat already. But Petrucci didn't do just that - he was on pace right away, outqualified his teammate and managed the whole race without much pace drop-off. He soldiered on, he fought hard and he delivered. Welcome back, Danilo.
Scott Redding - 6
His worries about the Michelins seem to have been eased somewhat, but that didn't prevent another quiet qualifying for Redding at Le Mans, where he failed to make Q2. Still, considering he's been pretty good at staying on the bike in 2016, his race had potential to go much, much better if not for another mechanical failure. Right now, Redding just can't seem to catch a break.
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