VALENCIA – Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia claimed his fourth victory in the last six MotoGP races at the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix as nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi finished 10th in his final race.
Pramac Racing’s Spanish rookie Jorge Martin made a strong start from pole position and held off a pack of challengers but was denied a second victory of the season after being overtaken by Bagnaia with 13 laps left.
Australian Jack Miller of Ducati was third while 2020 world champion Joan Mir of Spain missed out on a podium position after surging forward following a crash by Suzuki team mate Alex Rins midway through the race.
Yamaha’s new world champion Fabio Quartararo finished fifth.
Seven-times MotoGP title winner Rossi, one of the greatest and most charismatic of motorcycling champions, delighted fans including Brazilian soccer great Ronaldo with a few quick laps but was unable to add to his 199 premier class podiums.
Poleman Jorge Martin nailed his launch off the line to grab the lead into the first corner at the start of the 27-lap finale, with Jack Miller and Joan Mir shadowing him.
Miller took the lead on the run into Turn 1 at the start of the second lap, though Martin retaliated at Turn 2, while Mir would force his Suzuki up the inside of the Australian at Turn 4.
Bagnaia and Alex Rins would also quickly surmount Miller as he appeared to struggle to stop his factory Ducati in the early stages, while Bagnaia and Rins would get ahead of Mir on lap four to give chase on Martin.
The top four of Martin, Bagnaia, Rins and Mir briefly opened up a gap of around a second to the rest by the sixth tour, though Mir would soon just drop off the leading trio.
Rins and Bagnaia traded second spot on the same lap, but the former’s victory hopes were dashed when he crashed at Turn 6 on lap 11.
Martin and Bagnaia’s pace kept them out of reach of the chasing Mir following Rins’ crash, with the factory Ducati rider having a look at Pramac’s Martin into Turn 6 on lap 15.
That proved unsuccessful, but Bagnaia got a great run out of Turn 12 and followed Martin line astern through the Turn 13 left-hander to execute a clinical pass for the lead into the final corner.
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