In 2017, the Valencian circuit played host to a championship decider between two MotoGP rivals that had lasted the whole season. Marc Marquez, then just a 5-time champion and defending his crown from the year before, showed up with a 21-point advantage over Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, the pair having six wins each and a hefty points lead over the rest of the pack. The goal for Dovi was simple: win the race. Since any result other than first place would guarantee the title going to Marc, his only option was to go for the win and hope that the championship leader would make a mistake and either crash out or finish far enough back that Dovi could swoop in and take the championship.
Of course, this is not what happened on that fateful Sunday. Marquez took an early lead, then dropped back a few places after a nerve-wracking slide in the first corner, but Dovi crashed out in the middle of the race after never making a real inroad into the front pack, ending his championship bid in the gravel trap surrounded by marshals. It was an unfortunate end to what had been an incredible season for the both of them, as Marquez took the chequered flag in third and sealed the deal on his sixth world title. In a season that had been full of fierce battles for the win, and a bitter rivalry brewing between the two championship protagonists, the real deciding moment ended up being an unfortunate crash on a tricky Valencian corner.
Though 2020’s Valencian races are not the championship finale, we may have seen a similarly decisive moment in the title race during the European Grand Prix this weekend. Joan Mir headed into the race winless but 14 points ahead of the chasing Quartararo, with a number of riders still in with a realistic chance at the title. Fellow contender Vinales was forced into a pitlane start after opening a sixth engine for the year, a violation of the engine freeze instituted at the beginning of the restarted season, and with the number of riders capable of winning the title growing slimmer, the world looked to Mir and Quartararo to see if either of them could make an inroad into actually winning this complex 2020 title.
Quartararo’s race ended up being much like Dovi’s was back in 2017. After making a poor start, he was attempting to make up positions and chase down his championship rivals when he slid out after being forced to sit up to avoid Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro, who was crashing out in front of him. This minor correction caused Quartararo to slide out himself, and the racing community watched on in horror as the pack raced away from the Frenchman, who deperately moved to get his bike back upright and re-join the race. Mir, on the other hand, had his best race of the year, sticking to the front group early on before making a decisive pass on teammate Alex Rins to inherit the lead, before streaking off to win by a little under a second.
Perhaps we will look back on this moment at the end of the year as the moment that decided the championship. With the vast majority of his rivals struggling to score any real points, Mir extended his championship lead to 37 points over Quartararo, meaning that a podium finish next weekend at the Valencian Grand Prix would crown him champion. In reality, there have been a number of defining moments in Mir’s campaign to take his first ever MotoGP title, from his first ever podium in Austria to his gutsy comeback in Misano, but it is hard not to feel like the young Spaniard now has one hand on the 2020 trophy.
It was a strong day overall for Suzuki, too. With Mir on top of the podium, and Rins managing a strong second place, the Japanese manufacturer was able to take it’s first 1-2 since 1982 and move into the lead in the constructor’s championship. With an 82-point lead in the team’s championship over Petronas, and of course with Mir looking set to take the rider’s championship, Suzuki have an opportunity to take an incredible triple crown this year, their first ever chance at such an accomplishment. While there have been several triple crowns in recent history – Marc Marquez almost single-handedly won Honda theirs in 2019 – in reality it is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve, and speaks volumes to how far Suzuki have come in the past few years.
Is the Suzuki the best bike on the 2020 grid? Perhaps, given the results they’ve put together recently. Sunday’s race was their fourth double podium from the last five starts, and their men currently reside first and third in the championship (Rins is actually tied on points with Quartararo, but the Frenchman leads due to having won more races this year). The bike has been complimented by allies and rivals alike as being the most versatile one on the grid, able to adapt to every new circuit we race at and find strengths in many areas. Their success cannot be pinned solely to the bike, however, as Mir and Rins have both really come into their own this season, and deserve a massive amount of credit for the campaign they’ve put together over the last few months to take the title fight to the Yamahas.
Speaking of the Yamahas, if there was a constructor that sorely lost this weekend, it was they. Mixed conditions on Friday and Saturday meant they were unable to perform their usual qualifying demolition, and instead found themselves starting from around the middle of the pack, with Morbidelli their best starter in eighth and Rossi all the way back in seventeenth. Between Vinales’ pitlane start, Quartararo’s crash, and Rossi’s engine failing after just four laps, they failed to get a single rider into the top ten, in one of the single most disastrous results the manufacturer has seen in recent memory. Technically, there are still three Yamahas in contention for the title, but Sunday was a body blow to their championship aspirations, and they will have to have a massive turnaround next week for there to be any chance of redemption.
KTM’s Pol Espargaro came across the line in third, marking his fourth podium of the season, and his second career podium in Valencia. It was a strong weekend overall for the KTMs, with Oliveira finishing in fifth and Binder recovering to seventh after a long lap penalty, and it really shows just how far they have come as a manufacturer. After only joining the class in 2017, they now find themselves regularly putting a bike on the podium, and generally at least one or two will make it into the top eight. While this final triple header will serve as somewhat of a swan song for Pol, who leaves KTM at the end of this season to join Marc Marquez in the Repsol Honda box, it should also allow for all of the KTM riders to give one final push to end their strongest season yet on a high note.
Nakagami continues his form as the top Honda rider for 2020, as he managed a strong fourth place on Sunday, but questions will be asked over whether that was all he could manage. After his disaster start in Teruel where he crashed out of the lead just five corners in, one could make the argument that Taka rode a rather safe race this time out, simply happy to see the chequered flag and bag another decent result for the year. Alex Marquez, meanwhile, had an unfortunate crash after a rather impressive comeback performance, losing a chunk of points in the rookie of the year race in the process. With there being still no word on the return of Marc Marquez over the coming weekends, Honda’s hopes will remain pinned to the backs of these young talents.
The championship was not decided this weekend, but it was truly a decisive blow for Mir’s competitors, and with the paddock returning to Valencia this weekend to do battle once more, things could very easily swing fully in favour of the young Suzuki rider come Sunday. Many moments will stand out from this season when we review it come December and beyond, but perhaps the most memorable moment will end up being the one where Quartararo lost the championship.
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