The top 10 MotoGP riders of 2017

After 2016's bumper crop of nine different race winners representing four different manufacturers, '17 was in some respects a return to normality for MotoGP, with only five riders winning races all season and the 'big three' teams monopolising the top step on the podium.

At the sharp end, the season started off looking like a five-way fight for title honours. But, as the campaign wore on, that shortlist was eventually boiled down to a two-way battle for glory that fittingly went down to the wire at Valencia.

Still, there were plenty of other star performers further down the order that warrant recognition for their achievements in what stands out as one of grand prix motorcycling's most memorable seasons of the last decade.

10. Jack Miller

Team: Marc VDS Honda
Starts: 17
Wins: 0 (best result 6th)
Championship position: 11th

The irony of Honda not renewing Miller's factory contract this year is that the straight-talking Aussie enjoyed his most impressive campaign in his third season in the premier class.

Even if there was no repeat of his 2016 Dutch TT victory, Miller was much more consistent, finishing inside the top 10 on nine occasions despite the limitations of his machinery.

Forced to miss Motegi with a broken leg, he excelled when he returned at Phillip Island, leading the opening laps - and in the final two races he beat the man who took his HRC contract for 2018, Cal Crutchlow.

9. Pol Espargaro

Team: KTM
Starts: 18
Wins: 0 (best result 9th)
Championship position: 17th

Although he signed up for KTM's ambitious new MotoGP project some months after Bradley Smith, Espargaro had the clear measure of his team-mate during the team's debut season.

Much like in his final year at Tech3 Yamaha, there were few obvious standout rides, just a quietly impressive set of results peppered with numerous Q2 appearances that the RC16 didn't obviously merit.

The fact Espargaro is being talked about as a KTM rider longer-term is sign of a job well done, and given the outstanding progress the team made this year, it would be little surprise to see him in the top six in 2018.

8. Danilo Petrucci

Team: Pramac Ducati
Starts: 18
Wins: 0 (best result 2nd)
Championship position: 8th

Petrucci is one of those riders you just can't help but root for, although this year the jovial Italian had a new sense of determination, no doubt boosted by Ducati's decision to grant him a full factory GP17.

Nobody would argue it made the wrong choice, as the 2011 Superstock 1000 champion led three races, underlining his reputation as a wet-weather ace in the process.

Petrucci's time on the top step of the podium will no doubt come if Ducati stays competitive, although you get the feeling Miller will be a tougher team-mate to overcome next year than Scott Redding was.

7. Jorge Lorenzo

Team: Ducati
Starts: 18
Wins: 0 (best result 2nd)
Championship position: 7th

Lorenzo suffered his first winless campaign at the highest level since making his MotoGP debut in 2008, and took his lowest-ever place in the riders' championship too.

But he deserves credit for the way in which he got down to the business of matching his riding style with a Ducati reluctant to carry the corner speed he'd grown so accustomed to.

And, for a rider with a reputation for being no good in the wet, he produced some impressive rides when the weather made a turn for the worse, notably at Misano (before crashing, of course) and Sepang.

6. Dani Pedrosa

Team: Honda
Starts: 18
Wins: 2
Championship position: 4th

Two more victories for Pedrosa mean the diminutive Spaniard now has as many premier class wins as four-time 500cc champion Eddie Lawson, cementing his status as MotoGP's greatest ever rider to never win a title.

But, on this breed of Michelin tyres, his small stature was more often a curse than a blessing, and he was usually nowhere to be found when temperatures dropped below a certain point.

Pedrosa's wins at Jerez and Valencia were frustrating reminders of his huge potential, as well as confirmation of the fact that there is - for now - no better wingman for Marquez that Honda could call upon.

5. Maverick Vinales

Team: Yamaha
Starts: 18
Wins: 3
Championship position: 3rd

It might seem harsh to rank a rider who scored three victories so low, but Vinales was a victim of sky-high expectations, borne from his impressive domination of pre-season testing.

Thrown off his stride by a combination of a new front tyre introduced in Mugello and myriad chassis changes (he and Rossi raced four different specs of frame this year), his season fizzled out in ignominious fashion at Valencia, his head seemingly all over the place.

It's fair to say 2017 proved Vinales isn't yet the finished product, but this year's tough experience will only make him a much more formidable competitor in future.

4. Johann Zarco

Team: Tech3 Yamaha
Starts: 18
Wins: 0 (best result 2nd)
Championship position: 6th

Watching Zarco crash out of the lead in Qatar might have led you to think that the Tech3 newcomer was going to be fast but erratic all season - but that, astonishingly, was his only non-finish of the entire year.

Ambitious, not afraid to ruffle feathers, capable of giving excellent feedback and possessing a Rossi-esque gift for tyre-friendly throttle control, he was without doubt MotoGP's most impressive rookie since Marquez.

Small wonder, then, that Yamaha wanted Zarco to be a central part of its mission to work out just what on earth went wrong this year in post-season Valencia testing.

3. Valentino Rossi

Team: Yamaha
Starts: 17
Wins: 1
Championship position: 5th

A sole race win in the rain at Assen and fifth in the riders' standings may not sound like much to write home about for a man who was once grand prix motorcycling's dominant force.

But much of that can be traced to Yamaha's broader struggles and a poorly-timed motocross crash that forced Rossi to sit out his home race at Misano, ending any hopes he may have harboured of an elusive eighth premier-class title.

The 38-year-old's gift for dragging out a result on Sunday remains a massive asset, and he dealt with his manufacturer's issues better than team-mate Vinales, even if he lacked the same speed early on in the year.

But, most importantly, his motivation shows no signs of fading even at his ripe old age, which bodes well for the many fans that are hoping that 2018 is not the final year they will see 'The Doctor' in action.

2. Andrea Dovizioso

Team: Ducati
Starts: 18
Wins: 6
Championship position: 2nd

What more is there to be said about Dovizioso's unexpectedly superb campaign, one that brought Ducati within an ace of its first premier class title in 10 years?

Perhaps more impressive than the Italian's victory tally of six - exceptional by anybody's standards - was the manner in which those wins were achieved. All of them, to a greater or lesser extent, had to be earned.

In particular, his heart-stopping duels with Marquez in Austria and Japan proved that, in this modern era of MotoGP that perhaps places less of a premium on raw speed, the 32-year-old has the skillset needed to put himself on a par with anyone else on the grid.

The guile and nerve Dovizioso demonstrated on both of those occasions will go down in grand prix racing folklore, no matter what he goes on to achieve from here. Let's hope it wasn't his one and only chance.

1. Marc Marquez

Team: Honda
Starts: 18
Wins: 6
Championship position: 1st

It was a tough call between Marquez and chief title foe Dovizioso for the top spot - just as both would have been, in many ways, equally deserving recipients of the title.

But, for all Dovizioso's heroics, their titanic battle wouldn't have gone down to the wire in such dramatic style had it not been for Marquez's engine blow-up at Silverstone, and it was easy to overlook the fact he had to come from 37 points back early in the year, such was his superb form in the second half of the year.

The fact he was so stressed he had started to lose hair early in the year goes to show what an effort he and his crew had to make to turn around the situation.

If he remains healthy and motivated in years to come, there's little doubt Marquez will be figuring strongly in many 'greatest of all-time' discussions - if he isn't already.

Honourable mentions

Had he not been forced to miss so many races through injury this season, Suzuki's rookie signing Alex Rins would have almost certainly featured in this list.

It took him a little while to catch up for all the lost mileage, but once he'd gained confidence on the GSX-RR, the young Spaniard was more than a match for his much more experienced team-mate Andrea Iannone, and ended the year with a superb run to fourth in Valencia.

Likewise, Jonas Folger enjoyed an assured debut campaign for a rider arriving in the premier class without much in the way of fanfare, giving Marquez a real run for his money at the Sachsenring.

But after suffering a huge crash in warm-up that forced him to sit out Silverstone, he withdrew from the final rounds of the season with what was later diagnosed as the genetic condition 'Gilbert's syndrome'. Fingers crossed he'll be back to full strength in 2018.

Two others who narrowly missed out on a top 10 spot were Aleix Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow. Both suffered far too many crashes (19 and 24 respectively for the season) for riders of their experience, which was especially frustrating given they could also be capable of fighting near the front.

Crutchlow in particular was frustrated to not add to his two race victories from last year on the LCR Honda, but too often left himself with too much to do in races after crashing in qualifying, especially later in the year.

As for Espargaro, the year started brilliantly with a run to sixth in Qatar, matching Aprilia's best-ever MotoGP finish. That however proved the high-water mark for the Spaniard, who was the victim of the RS-GP's mechanical unreliability about as often as he was the architect of his own misfortune.