Moto2 champion and vice-champion in 2021, Remy Gardner and Raúl Fernández moved up to MotoGP surrounded by expectations and were the favorites to dominate the rookie competition in 2022. After the first half of the season, both are at the bottom of the standings, behind even Darryn Binder, who skipped stages and jumped to Moto2. Better for Marco Bezzecchi, who is left in the table, and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who has already achieved a moment in the sun in a year in which Gresini was outstanding
Few things are more surprising about the 2022 MotoGP season than the competition among rookies. Considering the resumes of the five rookies this year, the consensus was that Remy Gardner and Raúl Fernández would be the most outstanding: after all, they arrived at the elite of motorsport bearing the label of Moto2 champion and vice-champion.
What we saw in the first 11 races of the season, however, was a real shipwreck. And it is not even that the ship hit an iceberg in the middle of the ocean. It barely made it out of the harbor. Remy has only nine points so far - but he scored on his debut - while Raúl has only five - the Spaniard only managed a top-15 finish at the Catalunya GP, the ninth race of the year.
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It is true that the KTM RC16 is not in great shape, but it is not that bad either. Brad Binder is sixth in the championship, with 93 points, while Miguel Oliveira, who has even won races, has 71 points.
What draws more attention is the difficult relationship that Gardner and Fernández have developed with KTM and with Hervé Poncharal. The owner and boss of Tech3. In the case of the Australian, the agent has even become persona non grata in Mattighofen. The case of the Spaniard is a little different: the Austrian team was wrong from the beginning, forcing him to join MotoGP on a bike he did not want. Raúl wanted Yamaha, but KTM forced his hand, enforced the contract, and has already assumed the mistake.
But do you know what is most striking? That the two are behind even Darryn Binder. The South African was the one everyone expected at the bottom of the championship. After all, he skipped stages and did not go through Moto2, jumping straight from Moto3, where, by the way, he was no phenomenon.
The youngest of the Binder brothers scored ten points this year, one more than Remy, and has as his best result of the year a tenth place in the rainy Indonesian GP, a result never achieved by the Poncharal duo. Totally unexpected!
Fabio Di Giannantonio, on the other hand, even had the chance to have a glorious day, but it is still not possible to say that he has had one of the most brilliant years. He scored 18 points in 11 rounds, and only scored points after the French GP, the seventh round of 2022.
The rookie, however, was the protagonist of a glorious day for Ducati in Italy. At Mugello, Fabio surprised everyone by taking the first pole-position - his and the Gresini's - ahead of Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini, Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia. In other words: a 1-2-3-4-5 for the home of Bologna.
The race, it is true, did not end that well - he was only 11th - but history will tell that he won a pole at home, with an Italian team and an Italian bike. Bad, it isn't.
The best of the rookies, however, is Marco Bezzecchi. Valentino Rossi's pupil arrived in MotoGP from a third-place finish in the Moto2 World Championship and failed to score in only four of the 11 races contested in the first part of the year. After the French GP he made a good leap in performance, but his best performance came in Holland, with a second place, the first podium for VR46 in the premier class.
Bez now has 55 points, 37 more than Di Giannantonio, his closest rival for the rookie of the year title. His contract with VR46 has not yet been officially renewed, but nobody believes that he will not stay there.
VR46 has done a great job, and, unobtrusively, Bezzecchi has left the favorites behind to be the most outstanding rookie so far.
MotoGP is now on vacation and will only resume on August 7th with the British GP at Silverstone.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.