English
Italiano
There is nothing more exciting than seeing the title awarded in the last race. It will happen on Sunday in Valencia, with Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo who will fight it out for everything in a single GP. It is not the first time this has happened in MotoGP and sometimes the predictions have unexpectedly reversed. Let's see what the previous ones were.
2017: Dovizioso and Ducati's broken dream
In 2017 Ducati found itself in a situation that mirrors the current one: Dovizioso was still in the hunt for the title against Marquez, but he had 21 points to claw back. Like Quartararo now, Andrea had to win, hoping that his opponent would finish the race in lower than 11th place. It didn't happen: Marc got on the podium behind Pedrosa and Zarco, while Dovi didn't even reach the finish line, crashing out with 5 laps to go when he was 4th. The Honda rider was able to celebrate his 6th riders title.
2015: The controversial world title
Everything and more has been said about that season finale, so let's limit ourselves to the race report of the Valencia GP, shall we?. Valentino arrived in Spain with a 7-point lead over his team-mate Lorenzo, but also with a penalty from Malaysia which forced him to start from the back of the grid. Rossi managed to make it back up to 4th place, but Jorge won the race and the title by 5 points ahead of the Doctor.
2013: Marquez's first time
Marquez won his first MotoGP title in a dash to the finish, in his debut season. The head to head was with Jorge Lorenzo, who won the race at Valencia, but it was not enough. Thanks to 3rd place and by 4 points, it was Marc who lifted the world champion trophy high.
2006: Valentino crashes out
Valencia has never brought Rossi much luck. That year Valentino managed to arrive at the last GP with a 6-point lead over Hayden, after making up 44 in the previous 5 races. For the Doctor it would have been enough to control the race against Nicky, who had not been able to get on the podium for a few races, instead everything went wrong. Rossi crashed at the start of the race, restarted but did not go any better than 13th place, while Hayden won the title thanks to 3rd place.
The other classes: the three Moto3 musketeers and the Capirossi-Harada clash in 250
There have been lots of battles at the final race in the other classes of the world championship, but a few are worth mentioning for their particularity. Certainly we cannot forget the grand finale of Moto3 in 2013, with Salom, Vinales and Rins separated by 5 points at Valencia. Luis crashed, Maverick won the race and the title and Alex was 3rd at the finish.
In 1998 the finale was in Argentina and in 250 the battle was between Capirossi and Harada. The Italian had a 4-point lead, which earned him the title after Loris took the Japanese rider out at the end of a risky braking move to say the least.
Two years later, however, still in the quarter-litre category, the title was assigned at a photo finish. Olivier Jacque, by 14 thousandths of a second, got the better of his team-mate Nakano by winning the race and the championship.
