Bagnaia keeps calm and wins the title of MotoGP champion

Rins offers the last victory to Suzuki

MADRID, 6 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Italian rider Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) has been crowned MotoGP world champion at the Comunitat Valenciana Grand Prix, the last round of the Motorcycle World Championship, after finishing ninth and defending his overall lead over Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha ), for whom his fourth position in Cheste was not enough, while the Spanish Alex Rins has won the victory in Suzuki's farewell to the championship.

In this way, 'Pecco' conquers his first title in the premier class, which joins his Moto2 championship won in 2018, and precisely relieves his great adversary this season, who has not been able to revalidate the throne. In addition, he offers Italian motorcycling the 80th title in its history in the World Championship.

For his part, Alex Rins said goodbye to the championship with a solid victory ahead of South African Brad Binder (KTM) and also Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati), a podium with which MotoGP said goodbye until 2023, without Suzuki in the garages.

With two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso as a witness from the Aprilia garage, the last race of the premier class was full of tension and emotion from the lights went out, when Alex Rins (Suzuki) managed to take the lead by in front of the 'poleman' Jorge Martín (Ducati).

Quartararo -who started fourth- noticed Bagnaia's encouragement from the beginning, who in just a few corners managed to come back from eighth place to overtake the then current world champion and unleash hostilities.

The man from Nice, aware that only a win would give him the title -together with a fifteenth place or worse for 'Pecco'-, left his soul to overtake the transalpine again, who, far from being conservative, fully entered into the fight, with passes and even a touch in the first few laps.

Little by little, things settled down, with 'El Diablo' oscillating between fourth and fifth place and Bagnaia falling to ninth, enough to be crowned MotoGP world champion and to be the first Italian rider to win on a motorcycle. Italian in the last 50 years. The nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, until now the last transalpine to be crowned in the queen category (2009), was among the first to congratulate the new champion.

Behind, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) had to retire in the first stage due to mechanical problems in the last race of the best season of his life, while Repsol Honda put an end to their bad course with both of their bikes out after crashes Pol Espargaró and Marc Márquez. Neither did Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), who crashed with 12 laps to go.

Joan Mir (Suzuki), in his last race before leaving for Repsol Honda, finished sixth, Raúl Fernández (KTM) finished twelfth and Alex Márquez (Honda) finished seventeenth.