Misano 2 is named after 1980s Brat Pack star Emilio Estevez for obvious reasons. But would this sequel be half decent like Young Guns 2 or truly horrible like Another Stakeout? We rate the riders to find out.
Top Ten Riders Rated out of Ten
Marc Marquez – 10 out of 10
Matched Pecco Bananas lap for lap until the Italian cartwheeled off into the scenery, then cruised home for a well-earned victory. Brings to an end his period of being more baffled by the concept of right-hand corners than Tai Woffinden.
Pol Asparagus – 9 out of 10
The younger Asparagus brother can’t be called random as he’s been consistently rubbish ever since he signed for Honda. A rare moment of brilliance for his best HRC result.
Enea Bastianini – 9 out of 10
This wasn’t just another stunning podium finish at Misano from a poor grid spot on an ancient bike. The non-yellow Italian also became the first to congratulate the new world champ by attempting to ram him into the kitty litter with a Moto3-style pass. Deserves a brand new Ducati for next year.
Fabio Quartarararo – 8 out of 10
A great performance from Fabio to clinch an outstanding world title and become the most likeable thing to come out of France that isn’t made out of fermented grapes.
Johann Zarco – 8 out of 10
A return to form for the random frog, who’s spent more time AWOL this season than a French soldier who’s just spotted a tree in the distance that looked a bit like a Panzer.
Alex Rins – 6 out of 10
Somehow finished a respectable 6th without anyone noticing.
Aleix Asparagus – 7 out of 10
Decent ride which largely consisted of not falling off while most other people in front of him did.
Maverick Vinales – 8 out of 10
Finished less than 2 tenths of a second behind his team-mate despite minimal experience on the bike and a terrible grid spot. Great stuff from the magnificently deranged Spaniard.
Luca Marini – 6 out of 10
A good result for the less talented of Rossi’s mum’s sons. Tainted a bit by his team-mate’s brilliant podium on a similarly ancient bike.
Valentino Rossi – 7 out of 10
Arguably his best result of the season. Stole 10th place from Binder on the last lap to show his home crowd a glimmer of his younger self.
Selected other riders:
Brad Binder – 6 out of 10
A hard-fought 11th place for Binder, who is considered vegan by South African standards as he often eats meat from non-endangered animals that he didn’t personally shoot and barbecue. Brad said this was a race to forget. I’m not sure how on earth he plans to forget a race where he crashed on the sighting lap, started on the spare bike from pitlane, got a long lap penalty for the dreaded track limits BS and got overtaken by none other than MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi on the last lap.
Pecco Bananas – 8 out of 10
The Ducati on a hard front tyre was blisteringly quick but borderline unrideable. Pecco did extremely well to last as long as he did before the bike spat him off. It ended his title hopes, but at least he went out all guns blazing.
Jackass Miller – 6 out of 10
The world’s worst tail gunner supported his team leader by making the same awful tyre choice, which is a kind of moral support, I suppose. Can’t blame him too much for crashing on the evil hard front tyre, though.
Danilo Petrucci – 6 out of 10
Torpedoed by Joan Mir, who misjudged the distance to the huge Italian as he is used to ramming the much smaller Jackass Miller. At least it was more valuable experience of crashing on gravel for the loveable, Dakar-bound galoot.
KTM – 3 out of 10
So far this season, Brad Binder has been far and away the best KTM rider. Ludicrously, his “eventful” 11th place at Misano 2 meant that he was still the top KTM finisher as the others had all crashed (Petrucci was punted off, but he wasn’t going to achieve anything in the dry anyway). The orange factory are all at sea, which is a bit strange as Austria is a landlocked country.
The Misano Crowd – 10 out of 10
With the circuit being a 15 minute scooter ride from Valentino Rossi’s house, it was great to see the warm welcome that the retina-searingly yellow crowd gave to Vale’s arch-rival Marc Marquez. They joyfully cheered the Spaniard and were heard to chant, “Let’s go, Marquez! Let’s go, Marquez!” What a great bunch of knowledgeable, non-partisan racing fans they are.