The queen class of motorcycling has a new king: Pecco Bagnaia. A 25-year-old from Turin, in his fourth season in the top category, the Ducati rider culminated in Cheste, in the last race of the year, the most brutal comeback in history to end up being champion and returning the crown to Italy (since 2009 with Valentino Rossi) and the Borgo Panigale factory (since 2007 with Casey Stoner). Bagnaia had cut a whopping 91 points in eight races from Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), who has been unable to revalidate his 2021 throne.
Pecco Bagnaia had everything in his face to become champion in the last round of the championship. He arrived with a 23-point advantage over the Devil, after having taken the lead in Australia, and it was enough to finish 14th, add two more points, in the event that the Frenchman won. It didn't happen. The victory went to Álex Rins, deservedly so.
Although the last race of the year was extremely tense from the start. Rins started like a shot to say goodbye to Suzuki with a victory, followed by Jorge Martín, who was looking for his first victory of the course. And behind, the war… Márquez surpassed Miller; Quartararo, willing to put his part of the script, also overtook the Australian neighbor from Bagnaia, and he placed 6th (he started 8th).
But Miller put up a fight, his last service to Ducati, and had a tough time with Quartararo. They went over and over, sparks flew and even a spoiler flew, and the Australian ended up prevailing, reaching third place, with Quartararo fifth, ahead of Bagnaia, who only had to control and have help, if he needed it. , by Martin and Miller.
The fall of Marc Márquez, on lap 10/27, brought Quartararo closer to the podium, fourth. The Catalan pilot aspired to close the course of his return with a drawer, but lost control of his Honda at turn 8 when he was running fourth. El Diablo had Miller far away, 1.5 seconds away, to try the feat of winning. Mission Impossible. Bagnaia, surpassed by Binder and Oliveira, did not see his title in danger from 7th place.
The heart of Davide Tardozzi (63), the boss of Ducati, was set at 115 beats per minute. Pecco's girlfriend, Domizia Castagnini, did not raise her eyes from the floor. The sister, Carola, felt the remaining 10 laps take forever seeing that Pecco was falling behind, to 8th place, when Luca Marini also overtook him with 8 laps to go, and shortly after also Bastianini, who sent him to 9th. º.
With five laps to go, Quartararo moved up to fourth place after Miller crashed and Bagnaia, in 8th place. But the miracle was no longer possible. Rins, Martín and Binder were unattainable for the Frenchman, who handed over the crown without having been able to put pressure on Bagnaia with a victory.
The victory was deservedly scored by Álex Rins, his second victory of the year, to say goodbye to the Suzuki era in MotoGP in the best way. The Barcelonan, who led from the start, faced the last lap with 5 tenths. It was his first victory in Valencia after two second places. Second was Binder and third Martin.
Aleix Espargaró, who received a visit from Fernando Alonso in the Aprilia box, said goodbye to his best season in MotoGP with a retirement due to a breakdown on lap 7, which deprived him of winning third place in the World Championship. The bronze went to Enea Bastinanini. His brother Pol de el said goodbye to his very discreet era at Repsol Honda, also with a retirement due to a crash, a sad ending before moving to KTM. And Àlex Márquez also said goodbye to his team, the LCR Honda, with a crash.
Pecco Bagnaia (Turin, 1/14/1997) is the first Italian world champion since Valentino Rossi in 2009. In the last 12 years, ten titles have gone to Spaniards (Joan Mir, Marc Márquez, Jorge Lorenzo) and the others to Quartararo (2021) and Stoner (2011). Bagnaia breaks a long drought for the transalpines, with the peculiarity that he is the first disciple of Rossi, from the Ranch de Tavullia quarry, who becomes MotoGP champion.
Bagnaia has had a meteoric trajectory. Champion in his fourth year of MotoGP, last year he was already runner-up in his first season with the official Ducati, after two discreet initial years, 16th and 15th, in the Pramac Ducati satellite, where he came as a substitute for Danilo Petrucci. He rose to the queen class having been Moto2 champion (2018) in the second year, with Valentino Rossi's Sky Racing, his godfather, who opened the doors of his team to him in 2014, in his second World Cup season, after a premiere disappointing with the Italian Federation team, as teammate of Romano Fenati.
Bagnaia's success is the triumph of serene driving, very little given to departures from the script, eccentricities, saves or crazy overtaking. Pecco is a rider with a very good character, and great technical quality, fine, constant, regular, who has also had the mechanical power of the Desmosedici, devilish in speed and power, and the teamwork of the Ducati army, with 8 powerful bikes in a grid of 24 machines.
