The 2022 MotoGP championship might have been something of a foregone conclusion by Sunday morning, but that has never stopped racers from racing. Fabio Quartararo wrapping the 2021 title up early didn’t stop Pecco Bagnaia from taking back-to-back race wins to cement himself as a favourite for the following season. Joan Mir’s romp to the 2020 title didn’t stop Miguel Oliveira from taking a dominant win at home in the first Portugese grand prix in recent memory. Riders will always try and close out the season with a bang, regardless of the stakes at play.
In a way, the fact that there was still a mathematical chance for an upset win for Quartararo in Valencia took away from what was an altogether exciting race. The early leading pack of Alex Rins, Jorge Martin, Marc Marquez and Jack Miller were all somewhat surprise packages for the podium fight, and the four of them put on some spectacular fighting while the cameras stayed glued to the two title contenders behind. There were fights up and down the order missed by the cameras, and a number of crashes and retirements that went unnoticed as the world remained glued to the fates of Quartararo and Bagnaia.
Quartararo’s strategy was fairly clean-cut from the beginning. Given the man required the full 25 points to even have a chance at the title – second place wouldn’t give him the requisite score to pass Bagnaia even if the Italian crashed – the defending champion simply went on the attack from the beginning of the race and did everything in his power to take the win. His early race was impacted somewhat by an impact with Bagnaia himself, which cost Bagnaia a winglet from the right side of his frame, but Fabio persisted and began hunting down the leading quartet who had since broken away.
How much does a broken winglet cost you in modern-day MotoGP? It depends on who you ask. Remy Gardner described his RC16 as “unrideable” after he lost a winglet in the early laps of the Jerez race earlier this season, and Brad Binder had some similar complaints when his came off in a separate European race, but Enea Bastianini was able to make up ground in Silverstone despite his aero being lopsided from an early collision and beat several Ducati riders with uncompromised winglets. Circumstances can vary from rider to rider and bike to bike, as with all things, but it would seem that the majority of scenarios lead to the rider suffering as a result.
This is part of the problem, and why many fans are calling for aero to be removed from the sport altogether. The fact that you can lose such a small part of the body on a MotoGP bike and suffer so greatly as a result – again, discounting Bastianini’s insane ride at Silverstone – is perhaps indicative of the fact that aero is having a net negative result on the sport. Not only is it adding to the issue of overtakes spurred on by electronics and ride height devices, but they now represent a piece of bodywork that can come off in a heated battle and hamstring the rider on board for the remainder of the race.
In Bagnaia’s case, the inbalanced aero package likely gave him an unnecessary extra layer of stress as he attempted to limit the damage on his overall race and deny Quartararo the opportunity of snatching victory away from him. His position continued to drop as the laps ticked by, aided only by the sheer number of crashes occurring up and down the order. Between a surprisingly cool temperature on track and the unusual layout of the Valencia circuit meaning riders were spending long periods of time without touching the right-hand side of their tires, people were being caught out throughout the race, limiting the damage as Bagnaia fell backwards.
His descent led him into the maw of several riders looking to make up ground, including Mir and Oliveira, before eventually finding himself ahead of a pair of Ducatis in the form of Luca Marini and Enea Bastianini. Manufacturer orders was a big talking point all weekend, and it was common knowledge that the other Ducati riders were told in no uncertain terms not to interfere with Bagnaia during the race, but both Marini and Bastianini were lapping far quicker than the championship leader was. As a viewer, the expectation was that both riders would simply let Bagnaia continue to orbit ahead of them, so it was something of a surprise when they both scythed through in quick succession.
You have to wonder about the pressure these other Ducati riders must have been under this weekend. Ducati have been without a world title in fifteen years, and have thrown billions of Euros at this sport in the last decade under the guidance of Gigi Dall’Igna with the promise that he would lead them to glory once again. They’ve had the most competitive bike on the grid for several seasons in a row now, with the only real contender being the silky-smooth 2020 Suzuki and the Yamaha before they stopped bothering to develop it, yet the rider’s championship has eluded them repeatedly. With the best opportunity since Casey Stoner was onboard right in front of them, enforcing their other riders not to clash with Pecco must have been a very difficult exchange.
Back at the front, the lead group of four was down to a lead group of three with Marc Marquez bailing out at turn 8, and had a pair of hard charging riders trying to add their names to the list of contenders. Quartararo was grinding away lap times on his underpowered Yamaha, and looked to be making solid ground up, but the rider in fifth was lapping much faster and presented a very real problem for the Frenchman. Right on cue, since we hadn’t really seen or heard from him in a few races, Brad Binder was on the bounce back and ready to tangle for just his third podium of the season. The KTM rider cut the gap down to Quartararo in short order, got past, and continued his charge towards the front.
It’s worth mentioning at this point what an unbelievable job Alex Rins was doing managing the race from the front. The entire race through, the Suzuki man held the pace from first place at such a rate that the pack of riders behind him were stretched to their limits, and we saw confirmation of that in Marc’s crash. There was literally no pressure on Rins – this was guaranteed to be his final race with the outbound Suzuki team, and with his Honda debut beckoning he had no real reason to perform for the Japanese brand – and so he flourished, showing the world exactly what he was capable of in a similar manner to what he produced at Phillip Island a month prior.
Jack Miller joined the growing list of DNFs, ending his Ducati run in the gravel trap, and Binder made one final pass on Jorge Martin for second, but there was just no stopping Rins. The Spaniard took an emotional win, his second of the season, and with Quartararo down in fourth the championship battle ended on the spot. Bagnaia crossed the line in a safe ninth to clinch his first MotoGP title, and his second world title after his Moto2 success back in 2018. He is the first Ducati champion MotoGP has seen in 15 years, the first Italian to do it since his mentor Valentino Rossi, and the first Italian rider to win on an Italian bike since Giacomo Agostini did it on an MV Agusta some 70+ years ago.
Italy has a new superstar to support, and that is music to everyone’s ears. There were always going to be questions of who would act as the successor to Valentino Rossi, and the expectation was certainly that it would be a member of his VR46 academy, but the fact that it came so soon after his departure from the sport is both surprising and relieving. Rossi’s devoted fanbase has a new idol to follow, and he’s a hell of a rider – eleven wins in two seasons is nothing to sneeze at, and that number is only going to continue climbing as Bagnaia continues racing at the highest level of two-wheeled racing.
Elsewhere in the pack, it was a similarly fond farewell to Suzuki from Mir in sixth, managing to take an impressive result after his bike struggled with electronics issues all race and forced him to ride on feeling alone. Oliveira closed the book on his KTM career in fifth, and Raul Fernandez fought through to twelfth for his equal best result of his rookie season. Compared to several other outbound riders who could be said to have phoned it in for their final few races, it was brilliant to see these men seeing off their time with their current employers in style and sets them up nicely for new scenery in 2023.
With the title wrapped and the racing over, a new season of MotoGP beckons. A shrunk grid, an increased calendar, the inclusion of sprint races, a new manufacturer – there’s plenty of things to look forward to, but also quite a bit to look back on from the season that was. Fear not, motorbike fans, there will be lots to talk about in the absence of racing, but for now I think it best we relish a world title claimed and a season completed.
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