Rins winner, Bagnaia world champion

« Statistically, it's difficult, but in motor sports, anything can happen, » said Lin Jarvis, boss of Yamaha Motor Racing, on the starting grid of this Valencia Grand Prix. Yet, despite all his efforts, an exemplary race and a determination worthy of a world champion, fabio quartararo failed to fulfill its mission of winning the race. Francesco Bagnaia, for his part, secured a ninth place, more than enough to take his place on the throne of the MotoGP. 

On the other hand, who could have imagined that a Suzuki would win during the Japanese manufacturer's last race in MotoGP before its withdrawal ? " I would like us to finish with a double, » declared Livio Suppo, team manager of the Suzuki team, to us on Thursday. In the end, the factory did not succeed, but Alex Rins triumphed with art and style. From fifth place on the grid, he quickly found himself among the contenders for victory against Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin and Jack Miller, also determined to win his last race with Ducati. 

A little further behind, Quartararo found himself ahead of his rival for the title Francesco Bagnaia. The two men did not hesitate to make contact on the second lap at the second corner. In this maneuver, Bagnaia also lost a fin. Seeing the leading group escape, Quartararo was quick to take the advantage of the Ducati rider to try to make up for his delay. He almost managed to get back in the wake of the three leaders before being joined and then overtaken by Brad Binder, author of a dazzling comeback from the third row on the grid. 

From there, the race began to slow down, Rins gave himself a little breathing room on the Martin/Miller duo ; Marquez having made a mistake a few laps before. Miller was also trapped a few laps from the finish, leaving Martin under threat from Binder. The South African ultimately gained the upper hand to take second place ahead of Martin. Quartararo failed to reach the podium and lost his place on the MotoGP throne. 

Passed by Joan Mir, Luca Marini, Miguel Oliveira, Enea Bastianini, Bagnaia arrived in ninth place to take the crown, the first for an Italian driver in the premier category since Valentino Rossi in 2009 and the first by a Ducati representative since Casey Stoner in 2007. 

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