Rider of the year
Fabio Quartararo (30%)
He may not have won the championship and he’s probably still French – but despite this it didn’t stop you rightfully voting Fabio as your rider of the year.
Quartararo battled against the odds on a bike that often looked more outdated than Colin Edwards’ views – and singlehandedly headed the charge against the swarms of Ducatis.
A worthy winner.
2nd Francesco Bagnaia (18%)
3rd Enea Bastianini (16%)
Worst rider of the year
Franco Morbidelli (29%)
Rarely does disappointment come in more shades than the palette of failure that was Franco Morbidelli’s season.
Whilst Morbidelli’s teammate Quartararo was desperately trying to fend off millions of steaming Ducatis Franky was toddling around at the back and often then falling off. Not that it mattered. As at the last race of the season, in a final insult to Yamaha, the Italian slowed down on the final laps as not to pass his friend Bagnaia on the Ducati to ensure Quartararo wouldn’t win the championship.
In the end Fabio scored six times more points than the truly awful Franco Morbidelli.
2nd Andrea Dovizioso (15%)
3rd Raúl Fernández (11%)
Biggest surprise (positive)
Enea Bastianini (42%)
An absolute landslide victory for the little Italian who almost didn’t have a ride thanks to nepotism.
Bastianini took four victories (four more than Carl Fogarty managed throughout his career) and finished third in the final standings.
Thankfully it wasn’t just you that thought the Italian was epic –Ducati did too and awarded him a factory ride for 2023. Look out Franco…
2nd Jack Miller (14%)
3rd Marco Bezzecchi (10%)
Biggest surprise (negative)
Franco Morbidelli (29%)
It’s the second award for the very sub-standard Franco Morbidelli. But we find it a surprise that you thought it was a surprise he was so bad!
Maybe it was just the scale of how off the pace the Italian was. But who gets the last laugh? Certainly not Yamaha…they’re stuck with him for 2023.
Also we believe that Dovizioso deserves a mention for his 2022 season. Even Andrea himself was stunned by how poor he was – prompting him to retire mid-season to avoid more ridicule online from Bradley Smith.
2nd Andrea Dovizioso (20%)
3rd Joan Mir (10%)
Worst haircut
Aleix Espargaro (18%)
For some unknown reason Aleix Espargaro decided to do this mid-season:
And obviously you weren’t too pleased about it.
And rightly so. When wearing his jet black leathers the also-ran Spaniard suddenly resembled a Dublin based beverage. Worse still the self-righteous fictional journalist Sebastian Piffleton suggested that Espargaro’s hairstyle was racist and that he was more offended by it than anyone else.
Stay in your lane Aleix.
2nd Johann Zarco (17%)
3rd Marco Bezzecchi (10%)
Most handsome rider
Fabio Quartararo (23%)
If you’re going to win two MGPN awards it should always be rider of the year and most handsome rider – and maybe not even in that order. These two awards combined are the literal polar opposite of Kurtis Roberts.
Step forward the dashing Fabio Quartararo. A garlic infused MotoGP heartthrob that once again set our pulses racing by needing absolutely no persuading to take his top off – on or off the track.
And lets also give a notable shoutout to Luca Marini – despite resembling a skeleton draped in processed cheese the Italian with a famous brother claimed a respectable and somewhat baffling third place.
2nd Enea Bastianini (16%)
3rd Luca Marini (7%)
Ugliest rider
Raúl Fernández (13%)
Poor Fernández suffers from having one of those faces that you instantly dislike – like Pedro Acosta or Nicola Sturgeon. If there ever was a beauty tax then he would qualify for a rebate.
It was somewhat convenient then that Raúl’s KTM 2022 antics were just as ugly as the face he unfortunately harbours.
Franco Morbidelli (10%)
Darryn Binder (9%)
Best crasher
Darryn Binder (24%)
Darryn came into MotoGP with a pretty big reputation to uphold. He’d spend the previous 20 seasons crashing into stuff in Moto3 and suddenly he was given a ride-on 240bhp HIMARS. And boy did the rubbish Binder brother not disappoint.
Darryn crashed into everything. On track. Off track. Into riders. Into spectators. Just about nothing or nowhere was safe from the wild South African hurling his bike at it. The only saving grace was that he was riding a Yamaha – so, coupled with Binder’s skillset, usually meant he wasn’t going fast enough to cause serious damage.
2nd Marc Marquez (15%)
3rd Takaaki Nakagami (11%)
Most dangerous rider
Takaaki Nakagami (34%)
It takes a very special rider to beat Marc Marquez to this award – a category usually dominated by the Spanish Antichrist. But in 2022 Takaaki showed who was the top beansprout and took dangerous riding to a level that even had Marc wincing.
Nakagami’s 2022 highlights included causing a massive pile up in Spain by rubbing his smooth featured face on the rear tyre of Pecco Bagnaia and sending poor Alex Rins to hospital on two separate occasions.
2nd Marc Marquez (29%)
3rd Darryn Binder (12%)
Most punchable rider
Raúl Fernández (18%)
Poor Raúl collects his second award of the 2022 season by being the rider you’d most like to punch. Being ugly probably doesn’t help. But his victory must also have been aided by the Spaniard’s bad attitude and lack of respect for his KTM team – all rounded off with a miserable persona.
Marc Marquez collects a fine second place proving the Rossi fans still haven’t forgiven him for 2015 and a third for the drunken antics of Francesco Bagnaia.
2nd Marc Marquez (14%)
3rd Francesco Bagnaia (12%)
Best Looking Bike
Suzuki (54%)
And finally, in a terrible parting gift, we give you the saddest poll result of them all…
Losing Suzuki from MotoGP is utterly rubbish. For a season blessed with nuggets of disappointment and failure the fact that the top noodles at Suzuki decided to pull the plug on MotoGP and all their racing made us so angry that we wanted to roll over a Jimny.
But it gets worse. Alex Rins showed us with his superb win in the final race that the bike and team were brilliant. And now you’ve voted (by a considerable margin) that the gorgeous Suzuki bike was the most stunning machine on the grid. And we’re losing it. In a world full of grotesque looking Ducatis we really needed to retain the beautiful Suzuki to cleanse our weary eyes.
But that’s all gone. Thanks Suzuki. Thanks.
2nd Aprilia (18%)
3rd Team Ducati (6%)