Crash.net's Top 10 MotoGP Riders of 2021: 7th - Johann Zarco

Johann Zarco slots into seventh in our top ten rider countdown for the 2021 MotoGP season.

24 Dec 2021

Johann Zarco, MotoGP race, Catalunya MotoGP 6 June 2021
© Gold and Goose

Team: Pramac Ducati (satellite)
Bike: GP21
Wins: 0
Podiums: 4
Best Qualifying: Pole (x1)
Fastest Lap: 2
DNFs: 3
Championship position: 5th

There were plenty of positives for Johann Zarco during the 2021 MotoGP season, including a career-best four podiums and leading the world championship for the first time.

But all his rostrums came during the opening seven rounds and, accelerated by three non-scores, the Frenchman slipped back to fifth in the final standings.

That was still a personal best for Zarco and new high for a Pramac Ducati rider, but the wait for a race victory - after five seasons in MotoGP - continues. Not that he didn't come close, missing out by just 0.175s to Miguel Oliveira in Catalunya.

Nonetheless, on the other side of the garage, rookie team-mate Jorge Martin also took four podiums (despite missing four races due to injury) and made history with the first ever MotoGP win by a satellite Ducati rider.

It's for that reason, plus the drop of 71-points scored by Zarco over the second half of the season compared to the first, that we've ranked him seventh on our countdown.