Down to the wire
It’s Pecco versus Quartararo as MotoGP title fight reaches Valencia
Eight months, 246 days, 19 races and 461 laps after the 2022 MotoGP World Championship kicked off, it all comes down to two men and two factories fighting for one big prize in Valencia on Sunday.
MotoGP’s first final-round title decider since 2017 will see either Ducati man Pecco Bagnaia or Yamaha’s star rider Fabio Quartararo triumphant.
A commanding 23-point lead over reigning champion Quartararo leaves Bagnaia as the favourite to become Ducati’s first premier class king since Aussie legend Casey Stoner won their one and only title back in 2007.
Bagnaia is also on the brink of becoming the first Italian to win the MotoGP crown since Valentino Rossi won the last of his seven premier class titles in 2009. And success will be poignant for Bagnaia, who is bidding to become the first MotoGP World Champion from Rossi’s VR46 Academy.
Rossi created the academy in 2013 to help unearth and nurture young Italian talent for World Championship racing, and Bagnaia was hand-picked to race in his first Moto3 squad in 2014.
This weekend carries such significance for the VR46 Academy and Italian motorsport that Rossi will attend in person to see if one of his students can emulate the master.
Also out to emulate some of Rossi’s former glories will be Quartararo. A stunning ride to third from 12th on the grid in Sepang last month kept alive his slim title hopes. You feel Quartararo needs a miracle to defend the title, the 23-year-old knowing anything other than a win and it will be curtains for his hopes of being the first Yamaha rider to retain the MotoGP title since Rossi in 2009.
The Bagnaia/Quartararo showdown is the 19th in premier
‘Rossi will be on hand to watch his protégé’
class history to be decided in the final race of the season. Only three times in history has the rider not leading the standings going into the final round got the job done.
The last and perhaps most famous of those came in the unforgettably emotional scenes at Valencia back in 2006 when the late Nicky Hayden overturned an eight-point deficit after Rossi crashed out with the title within reach.
The mountain the Monster Energy Yamaha star must climb makes Mount Everest look like a casual Sunday afternoon stroll.
Quartararo is nursing a broken middle finger on his left hand after a practice crash in Malaysia, an injury that is severe enough to require post season surgery.
But as he proved in Sepang – adrenaline can sometimes be the most effective painkiller.
The most pain is likely to be inflicted by Ducati.
One year ago in Valencia it was a one-sided rout from the Bologna factory. Ducati completed a lockout of the front row of the grid and then for the first time since entering MotoGP, it took a podium clean sweep.
Valencia is tight and twisty and not the easiest layout to overtake on. So, qualifying as always will be pivotal when you consider that only three of the last 20 races in Valencia have been won by riders who didn’t start on the front row of the grid and nobody has won from lower than fifth in that period.
Quartararo, who notoriously struggles to overtake on the underpowered YZR-M1, hasn’t qualified on the front row in the last eight races since Assen. And remarkably he’s not led a single lap since his Sachsenring win put him 91-points clear of Bagnaia after 10 rounds.
Maybe it’s written in the stars that there’s one more plot twist to come on Sunday. The fat lady isn’t singing just yet, but her vocal cords are certainly being warmed up just in case.