MotoGP Valencia Race LIVE: Francesco Bagnaia takes over!

For this Valencia Grand Prix, the last round of the year in MotoGP, it was Jorge Martin who qualified in pole position for the fourth time in his rookie season. With these four pole positions, Martin becomes the first rookie with four (or more) pole positions in MotoGP since Fabio Quartararo with six poles in 2019. Ahead of the race, Martin is second in the fight for the Rookie of the Year title with 91 points, three units behind Enea Bastianini.

This is the 11th pole position for Ducati this season. Their previous MotoGP single-season record was in 2008 with nine. Additionally, there has been at least one Ducati rider on the front row at every race this year. Francis Bagnaia is second for his tenth consecutive front row but ends a series of five pole positions. Jack Miller, who reached the podium twice in Valencia, qualified in third position for his eighth front row of the season.

With George Martin, Francesco Bagnaia et Jack Miller, this is the second Ducati 1-2-3 in MotoGP qualifying after Emilia-Romagna this year with Francesco Bagnaia, Jack Miller and Luca Marini.

Joan mir is fourth for his second best qualifying result of the season after Algarve where he was in third position. He will try to win for the second time in MotoGP after the European Grand Prix last year on the same Valencia track.

Johann zarco qualified in fifth position. This is the 15th time this year that he has started from the first two rows of the grid. He will attempt to reach the podium for the first time since Catalunya this year, where he finished second.

After going through Q1, alex rins qualified in sixth position. This is his second best qualification of the season with the Portuguese Grand Prix where he was second. He has finished on the podium twice in Valencia, in 2018 and 2020/1, both times in second position.

Brad Binder, who also made it through Q1, qualified in seventh position as the first KTM. This is Binder's second best qualifying result of the season after Mugello, where he was sixth.

The 2021 MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo qualified in eighth position and as the best Yamaha rider, for his penultimate worst qualifying result of the season after Emilia-Romagna, where he was 15th.

Takaaki Nakagami qualified in ninth position as the best Honda rider. This is the first time that there is no Honda driver in the top eight places in the premier class during qualifying in Valencia.

Valentino Rossi qualified in 10th position, his best qualifying result since eighth at Silverstone this year. He will try to get on the podium for the 200th time in the premier category. Fun fact: Valentino Rossi will retire after having covered more than 46 km in races, or approximately 000 km!

On Sunday morning, Honda announced the decision not to let Pol Espargaro take the start of the final of the Valencia Grand Prix. This means that neither Repsol Honda is on the grid. The Japanese manufacturer needs its drivers to be as fit as possible for the important winter test in Jerez, which is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. For this reason, Stefan bradl was not used as a replacement rider for Marc Marquez recovering from a dirt bike crash in training.

What will this last race of the season, which is also the final race of the season, have in store for us? Valentino Rossi on a motorcycle ? Before answering this question, here is the table which summarizes the facts known so far.

MotoGP ™	Valencia-2 2020	2021
FP1	1'30.829 Takaaki Nakagami (See here)	1'40.569 Iker Lecuona (See here)
FP2	1'30.622 Jack Miller (See here)	1'30.927 Jack Miller (See here)
FP3	1'30.168 Franco Morbidelli (See here)	1'30.529 Aleix Espargaró (See here)
FP4	1'30.895 Alex Rins (See here)	1'31.208 Takaaki Nakagami (See here)
Q1	1'30.810 Brad Binder (See here)	1'30.673 Alex Rins (See here)
Q2	1'30.191 Franco Morbidelli (See here)	1'29.96 Jorge Martin (See here)
Warm up	1'31.057 Franco Morbidelli (See here)	1'31.082 Joan Mir (See here)
Course	Morbidelli, Miller, Pol Espargaro (See here)	Bagnaia, Martin, Miller
All time lap record	1'29.401 Jorge Lorenzo (2016)

But before getting started in MotoGP, let's salute a new Moto2 World Champion who has just been designated...

20.5° in the air and 23.7° on a dry track and a clear sky are the conditions offered to drivers for this last race of the year. Here are the live images, as if you were there…

For whom is the last victory of the season? To your predictions!

Drivers will have 27 laps to complete

It's off and it's Martin who escapes from the peloton in front of Miller and Mir

Behind, Bagnaia, Rins, Quartararo, Espargaro, Binder, Rossi and Zarco complete this top 10

Miller attacks Martin but to no avail. Mir does the same on the Australian and it passes, the Suzuki rider is 2nd

Miller misses, Bagnaia takes advantage as does Rins, new top5: Martin ahead of Mir, Bagnaia, Rins and Miller.

Mir lost two places in the space of half a lap, he is now 4th. Quartararo passes Miller without difficulty, the Frenchman is now 5th, the Ducati rider knows he will catch him in the straight!

Nakagami fell in turn 6, the latter was in Rossi's wheel, he occupied 11th position.

Ducati leads the way with 21 laps to go: Martin holds on at the front ahead of Bagnaia, Rins, Mir, Quartararo, Miller, Espargaro, Binder, Zarco and Rossi.

When two sports legends meet, that’s what it’s like….!

Bastianini does not do Rossi any favors, he takes 10th position

The Suzukis attack the Ducatis!

Rins falls in turn 6!

With 16 laps to go, the top 10 is as follows: Martin, Bagnaia, Mir, Miller, Quartararo, Espargaro, Binder, Zarco, Bastianini and Rossi.

Bagnaia attack on Martin, and Go he passes! 12 more laps for Martin to come back

Bagnaia takes off, quickly widening the gap on his competitor to 0.440s. But Martin doesn't give up, he comes back to 0.243s.

With 9 laps to go, the positions are as follows: Bagnaia, Martin, Miller who has just passed Mir, Quartararo is 5th.

Great end of the race for Zarco who is 6th.

Martin is in the saddle of Bagnaia, he is only 0.198s behind!

Bagnaia warned on his Dashboard of Martin's return, made the effort and widened the gap, he pushed it back to 0.535s. There are 6 laps left to complete for the future retiree Rossi who is ranked 10th.

Final laps for Vale with Morbidelli…his former student from the VR46. Great outing!

4 laps still separate Bagnaia from another victory. Martin remains in 2nd place ahead of Miller (who nevertheless comes back very strongly), Mir and Quartararo.

The world team championship will probably go to Ducati.

LAST ROUND of the 2021 MOTOGP season!

Victory for Bagnaia ahead of Martin and Miller

End of career for Rossi, all the drivers pay tribute to him!

Nine titles that crown a rich and intense career!

Rookie of the Year title goes to Jorge Martin, Ducati takes Team Championship title

 

              MotoGP Valencia Race: classification

 

 

Credit classification motogp.com