On a COTA weekend that, who knows, may yet go down as the definitive onset of MotoGP's Aprilia era, most riders had a session or two where they really, really excelled.
It made picking the standouts - or filling out the rest of the top 15 - quite difficult in this week's rider rankings. The bottom part was a bit more straightforward.
Qualifying: 7th Sprint: 1st Grand Prix: 2nd
Martin was in first place in this feature until the very last moment - and my decision to 'demote' him risks, I accept, being interpreted as evidence of anti-Martin bias.
For the avoidance of doubt, there is no such thing. This was an elite weekend, and if you count only the two races, Martin has stood out by far.
He and crew chief Daniele Romagnoli played an absolute blinder with the medium-rear pick on Saturday, and even without that longevity edge he was stunningly fast on Sunday, perhaps faster than race winner Marco Bezzecchi. On such a physical track, too, it is a remarkable achievement.
The near four-tenths gap to Bezzecchi in qualifying is what still gives me pause. It is the only missing piece - but it is missing. I suspect he'll find it soon enough.
Qualifying: 17th Sprint: DNF Grand Prix: 15th
I told you we were going to get weird. Except, in truth, Razgatlioglu could be even higher here.
Lost in Yamaha's early work with its all-new V4 bike and MotoGP's general reluctance to show anyone but the top five is that Razgatlioglu has been consistently exceeding expectations for the first races of his MotoGP switch.
He talks of "motivation" struggles and difficulty in adapting to the Michelin rear, but the actual performance on the timing screens is unimpeachable. For a track he last raced at in 2013 in Red Bull Rookies Cup, qualifying two tenths off Fabio Quartararo and beating his three Yamaha peers in the grand prix is frankly mega.
He could've gone two-for-two with the sprint, with the bike giving up just as he'd dropped behind Quartararo due to checking up for an unrelated battle up ahead.
Qualifying: 12th Sprint: 3rd Grand Prix: 6th
A night-and-day turnaround from the Bastianini of earlier this season - not too dissimilar to his mid-2025 resurgence, which did stick for a few races.
Qualifying was the weak point again, and this time it really didn't work out relative to what was possible - which Bastianini attributed to a lack of weight on the front leading to a wind-assisted instability on the back straight.
He was extremely potent in both races, scything through the pack in familiar Bastianini fashion - though made his life harder on Sunday by losing the rear on the opening lap and having his airbag inflated through contact with Zarco, who did come off worse.
Qualifying: 9th Sprint: 5th Grand Prix: 9th
You would've been forgiven for barely noticing Marini this weekend, save for a strong Friday effort to make Q2 and then an impeding penalty in said Q2, but the end result is a points return that's three times the combined COTA total of all other Honda riders.
The return to a conventional rear tyre casing (compared to the reinforced casings of Buriram and Goiania) made the bike, as per Marini, more compliant on corner entry, and he exploited this well enough while staying within the limit.
Two valuable race results, aided by attrition and penalties, made up a very Marini-style weekend.
Qualifying: 8th Sprint: 4th Grand Prix: 7th
The younger Marquez is in pure damage limitation mode to start the season, though at a certain point soon it risks going from damage limitation with the hope of eventual frontrunning to "just the way things are".
With the normal rear tyre casing not proving a panacea, he acknowledged at COTA that the new Ducati "affects quite a lot my natural riding style".
That's bitten him a few times already, including this weekend, so led to a more cautious approach for the races - and two valuable, if not particularly exciting, finishes.
Qualifying: 14th Sprint: DNF Grand Prix: 13th
A nice (tow-assisted) qualifying flattered Moreira's overall performance level through the weekend, but also reflects a good level of execution relative to modest potential.
His grand prix prep wasn't helped by an immediate sprint exit caused by what was described as a clutch issue. Nothing more than a learning weekend was on offer, and that's what he got out of it.
Qualifying: 13th Sprint: 7th Grand Prix: 8th
Unlucky with yellow flags on Friday but also just not where he needed to be over a single lap - as reflected in a narrow Q1 exit, which is not at the level for where the Aprilia is right now.
But Fernandez sees a lack of overtaking potency as the big limitation instead, convinced that all of the other Aprilia riders are making the difference on corner exit and thus are able to negate any grid position disadvantage in a way he cannot.
Still, there was a conviction that, relative to a hopeless Brazilian GP, this was a "positive weekend" because "the feeling is back".
Qualifying: 19th Sprint: 14th Grand Prix: 16th
Miller started the weekend feeling on the back foot relative to the other Yamahas, but ended it on Sunday "happier today than I had been all year, essentially".
This was because of a decent turn of late-race pace on Sunday, on a bike that hasn't always been the most compliant on used tyres.
A qualifying defeat to Razgatlioglu (making it 2-1 in the Turk's favour in the head-to-head) is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser, but otherwise this was a step in the right direction relative to Goiania.
Qualifying: 21st Sprint: 16th Grand Prix: 18th
The likelihood is high that we're watching a MotoGP career wind down here, with even a track like this - one that Rins used to soar at - unable to give him any meaningful edge on this Yamaha package.
He was let down on Friday in that end-of-day 'Q0' phase by electronics issues on both bikes, with only the less-favoured one eventually firing up. But on Saturday he qualified last despite "giving my 100%", then tucked the front running behind Miller.
Sunday - which had looked OK - fell apart with another electronics issue, visible quite clearly on the laptime sheets starting from the eighth lap.
Qualifying: 20th Sprint: 13th Grand Prix: 14th
The only positive from Morbidelli's weekend is that he kept things tidy. He was 1.6s off the lead Ducati in Friday practice, 1.1s off the lead Ducati in Q1, 15 seconds back from the lead Ducati in the sprint and 18 seconds back in the main race.
Riding around with an "awful feeling" and "no grip whatsoever", with the discomfort exacerbated on fresh rubber, he heads into MotoGP's unplanned sprint break in disarray.
Qualifying: 5th Sprint: DNF Grand Prix: DNF
Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone once floated the idea of a radical points system that awards only the top-three finishers.
Joan Mir rides like he's been told personally by MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta that the same system has been secretly adopted in the premier class of grand prix racing.
Another rider in another situation would've got credit for the excellent underlying level of performance. Mir - who insisted after both race exits that he had "no regrets" about his risk-taking approach - cannot get this credit.