MotoGP: Italian Francesco Bagnaia crowned world champion in Valencia


Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) was crowned MotoGP world champion for the first time in his career on Sunday at the end of the Valencia Grand Prix, the last race of the season won by Spaniard Alex Rins (Suzuki). To be crowned, Bagnaia, 9th at the finish, only needed a 14th place behind the 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo, who absolutely had to win. The Frenchman finished 4th in the race, behind Rins, who gave Suzuki one last victory before the team left the championship.

On the Ricardo Tormo circuit, Alex Rins, who started in 5th position, offered Suzuki one last victory before the team left the championship. After a solid start, the Spaniard quickly took the reins of the race and never let go. South African Brad Binder (KTM) and Spanish poleman Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac) complete the podium for this 20th and final round of the season.

Revenge of “Pecco”

In the footsteps of “El Doctor”: the first Italian champion since the legend Valentino Rossi in 2009, Francesco Bagnaia, titled for the first time in his MotoGP career, signs Italy’s return to the forefront after failing to 2nd place last year. He is also the first Italian to win on the handlebars of an Italian motorcycle since another legend, Guiacomo Agostini, who won his 12th world championship title in 1972 with MV Agusta and the first titled Ducati rider since the Australian. Casey Stoner in 2007. Reserved driver, a bit stubborn according to those around him, Bagnaia is in any case obstinate when he is on the track. After losing to Frenchman Fabio Quartararo in 2021, “Pecco” took revenge, to finally realize his dream of being world champion.

The title, the transalpine acquired it at the cost of a spectacular rise in the championship: on the brink of the abyss in the middle of the season, the Ducati rider, then trailing 91 points by Quartararo at the top of the championship, began a comeback which will lead to the biggest comeback in the premier category since the introduction of the current points system in 1993. Last year too, he had achieved a crescendo season, with his four victories at the end of the season. But this year, he did not flinch at the decisive moment to take the title of maestro. By the way, he became on Sunday, on the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia (Spain), the first Ducati rider to win a title since Australian Casey Stoner in 2007.

“Pecco” is now following in the footsteps of Rossi, his “mentor” with whom he studied: he is a student of the VR46 Academy, a group of pilots created by “El Doctor”. But for him, there is no question of comparing himself to the seven-time MotoGP champion: “Valentino Rossi’s heir does not exist!”, He swept away in an interview with AFP in September. “Everyone has to create their own story.”



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