Motorsport
Number 1 rules! Bagnaia double MotoGP world champion after dramatic race in Valencia, risk-taking Martín crashes out
MotoGP left behind an incredible and forever memorable season. Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín clashed for the last time this year at the Ricardo Tormo track near Valencia, Spain, with the 26-year-old Italian eventually winning his third world championship on the third lap of the grand prix after Martín’s overly risky ride from sixth on the grid.
MotoGP left behind an incredible and forever memorable season. Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín clashed for the last time this year at the Ricardo Tormo track near Valencia, Spain, with the 26-year-old Italian eventually winning his third world championship on the third lap of the grand prix after Martín’s overly risky ride from sixth on the grid. Bagnaia defended his crown with his seventh win of the season ahead of stablemates Fabio Di Giannantonio and Johann Zarco.
The World Championship road motorcycle season has come to its grand conclusion. Eight months, 19 races, 38 races scored, but only 14 points stood between Ducati riders Pecco Bagnaia, the reigning world champion, and Jorge Martín.
The advantage ahead of the final grand prix was held by Bagnaia, who was gifted pole position by Maverick Viñales after a penalty in the warm-up when he didn’t immediately stop his Aprilia after an engine failure. For the Italian, a top-five position was enough regardless of Martín’s result, while the Spaniard had to finish the race on the podium.
Martín stepped into the last couple of races ideally, with his ninth sprint win, which he completely dominated in the second half of the season. Bagnaia, on the other hand, has continued to fail to build on Saturday’s form in the first half of the season since his horror crash in Catalunya. The World Championship leader finished in fifth place, which cut his lead at the front to the aforementioned 14 points.
Dramatic opening laps
Bagnaia started from first position, but the stats awarded pole position to Viñales, who was left with a second row behind Johann Zarco and Jack Miller and ahead of Brad Binder and Martín.
KTM’s repulsions during the season have traditionally been among the best, but in recent races they have been overlaid by equally great starts for the Ducati riders. However, this time they showed up as they should, with both Miller and Binder entering the first corner and lining up behind Bagnaia. Martín quickly slipped in between them, with only one thing on his mind – victory.
Not only did Martín have to win, but he also had to hope that his rival in the title fight would finish outside the top 5. Martín accomplished the first step to a minor miracle by maneuvering on Binder and very quickly hooked up behind the back wheel of Bagnai.
Bagnaia kept Martín on his back during the second lap. He knew very well that even if Martín overtook him, he didn’t need to take the lead back at any cost and risk a duel with the Spaniard unnecessarily.
The fall of one of the protagonists prematurely decided the championship
The Valencia Grand Prix really got off to a flying start when there was a near-contact between Bagnaia and Martín at the start of the third lap. On the approach to the first corner, a slipstream from Bagnai’s Ducati pulled Martín over and only millimetres separated the two riders from disaster. Martín failed to brake, flew into the paddock and dropped down to eighth position, while Bagnaia escaped a crash similar to the one in Qatar a week ago and held on to the grand prix lead.
Martín must have been hoping for a mistake from his direct rival before the race, but instead made one himself. The world championship title was another big step away from him. However, the Pramac rider did not give up, easily overtaking Álex Márquez and moving into seventh place.
However, Martín struggled in the battle for the next position with Viñales. The factory Aprilia pilot passed him twice after two attempts at a manoeuvre, and it was only a clash between Zarco and Marc Márquez that finally allowed Martín to get ahead of Viñales, who was avoiding the struggling pair in front of him.
But it was not enough for Martín. Just two corners later, he was also looking to take on Marc Márquez, who had lost ground to Zarco just seconds earlier. Martín tried to squeeze between the apex and the eight-time world champion’s Honda. But disaster struck…
Martín drove into the rear wheel of Márquez’s Honda, which threw him violently into the air and into the gravel. At the same moment, Martín himself went down and, understandably, his indiscriminate, aggressive but also combative and courageous ride lost this year’s battle for the MotoGP championship.
Bagnaia thus officially became a double world champion in the most prestigious category at round six, regardless of his final result at the Valencia Grand Prix. Already without pressure or fear, he handed over his first position to Binder and later to Miller.
Thus, the factory KTM led ahead of Bagnaia, while in the Pramac garage all the team officials and mechanics consoled the broken Martin, who could not resist unadulterated tears. Despite trying over the top to turn the situation in his favour, the 25-year-old Madrid native proved that he is a force to be reckoned with for next season.
Double disaster for KTM, double gift for Bagnaia
The second half of the race was filled with anticipation as to whether Bagnaia would save his tyres for the final attack or whether the now reigning world champion would just finish. Bagnai’s teammate Enea Bastianini and Augusto Fernández crashed on lap 10. This left only sixteen riders circling the track.
Zarco, meanwhile, hung on to Bagnai, but the gap between them never dropped enough for the Frenchman to be able to humble the Italian anywhere. Binder and Miller were separated by a second at the front, and the same gap prevailed between Miller and Bagnaia.
On lap fourteen, however, the leader Binder made a mistake when he overshot turn eleven and involuntarily took the penalty lane on its exit. The South African was suddenly in sixth place, which set him off so much that two laps later he rammed into the side of Álex Márquez after a very sharp attack for fifth.
This “manoeuvre” earned Binder a mandatory one-position drop from race HQ, but the two-time MotoGP race winner responded by overtaking Viñales in fourth. Immediately afterwards, he let the 28-year-old Spaniard pass him, which the stewards judged to be a fair move by Binder, although he should have correctly given fifth position to Di Giannantoni, who was originally behind him.
However, the misery for KTM continued with Miller crashing at the fast tenth corner, gifting Bagnai back the grand prix lead. Miller was imitated a lap later by Rins when he failed to make the pass through turn one.
Suddenly Bagnaia was back in the battle for the win with Zarco on his rear wheel. However, the leading duo were still separated by the same margin of around half a second.
A famous end to a famous season
Although Binder escaped another penalty, despite going off the track, he was the fastest of all the other drivers and now trailed Bagnaio and Zarco in third position. In contrast, Viñales was slipping, mainly due to a soft rear tyre that could no longer generate the necessary grip. Unsurprisingly, Viñales lost ground to stablemates Aleix Espargaróvi and Raúl Fernández, as well as to the Yamaha-riding Franco Morbidelli.
But who was again hit by the living water, just like the last time in Qatar, was Di Giannantonio, who took care of Binder with five laps to go and was chasing Zarco and Bagnaia by miles. Meanwhile, Pól Espargaró crashed deep in the field. For a moment there were only thirteen riders on the track, but the Spaniard picked up his machine and continued with almost a lap to spare.
The two-man battle at the front quickly turned into a battle of three “Ducatisti”. Di Giannantonio had erased all of his deficit to Zarco in the space of two laps, greased his bread on the penultimate lap, and was about to take on Bagnaiu, whom he no longer had to spare.
Bagnaia was able to calmly hand over his position as race leader to Di Giannattoni. But like a true champion, the 2023 world champion kept his pursuers behind him, not allowing his compatriot any attempt to manoeuvre and won the last grand prix of the year. Bagnaia claimed his seventh win of the season and 18th in MotoGP ahead of Di Giannantonio and Zarco.
A brief statistic to finish
The 26-year-old Bagnaia became the third rider in the modern era of MotoGP to defend his world title after Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez. At the same time, Bagnaia defended the No. 1 plate on the hood of his bike, a feat last accomplished by Mick Doohan in 1998.
Bagnaia ended the season 20 grand prix points behind with a total of 467 points. While this is a record total, it should be noted that for this year the series has introduced Saturday sprints with half points. If the sprints were taken out of the total and only Sunday grand prix were taken into account, as has been the case every season since 1949, Bagnaia would have accumulated a total of 327 points.
75. the World Championship road motorcycle season has come to an end. The 76th will kick off on March 8 with Friday practice at the Lusail circuit in Qatar. A record 22 rounds await MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 riders, including a new destination in Kazakhstan and a returnee in Aragon, Spain.
Results of the Valencia MotoGP Grand Prix (Race 20/20, 27 laps = 108.135 km; top 10 only):
1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 40:58.535
2. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ita., Ducati) +0.176
3. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) +0.360
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) +2.347
5. Raúl Fernández (Span., Aprilia) +4.636
6. Álex Márquez (Span., Ducati) +4.708
7. Franco Morbidelli (Ita., Yamaha) +4.736
8. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) +8.014
9. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) +9.486
10. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) +10.556
Final MotoGP rider standings for the 2023 season (after 20/20; top 10 only):
1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 467 points
2. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 428
3. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 329
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 290
5. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 221
6. Aleix Espargaró (Sp., Aprilia) 206
7. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 204
8. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 201
9. Álex Márquez (Span., Ducati) 177
10. Fabio Quaratararo (Fra., Yamaha) 172
Source: MotoGP
