Recap of the 2022 MotoGP season final with Boris

MotoGP 2022 – Round 20 – Valencia

We all knew Pecco would win it. Sure, there’s always a bit of doubt, because MotoGP can be as unpredictable as a drunkard, but all that is considered, he will win the championship.

Of course, his trip is like an exercise in discreet defense as one can see. You can’t call it “racing”, because Pecco Bagnaia doesn’t race. He was just trying not to fall.

But even if he does fall, Fabulous will have to win the race to take the trophy away from Pecco. And for his part, Fabulous certainly tried his best. As much as he has the whole year.

The commentators advised all of us that Fabulous didn’t feel the pressure. I’m pretty sure it’s him. After all, a lot is at stake. Pecco looks a lot like the nerves he definitely is. He also knows what is at stake – and for the Ducati team, it’s a lot more than what Yamaha is betting on.

Yamaha made it to the final round only thanks to the genius of the reigning world champion, Fabio Quartararo. He goes to Yamaha, for example Marc Marquez goes to HRC. The only hope, all in one basket, riders take a bike that may not be as well graded as the others, and ride it.

Against him is an army of Ducatis. All driven by excellent riders and excellent rookies. In terms of mountains to climb, this is Everest for Great. But he climbed it anyway. And he’s almost reached the top. He was close.

But as we all know, in horseshoes, grenades and nuclear thermobaric weapons. It’s not meant to be crap in MotoGP.

The final weekend, the showdown, as billed, was bright and beautiful. Ducati has filled its garage with every conceivable executive, current and former racers and champions, celebrities and lovers. Yamaha seems to have done it with some big men in the unshakable suns who whisper incessantly to Lin Jarvis.

And Rossi, of course, was there – with one foot in both camps. Pecco is his VR46 graduate, but Yamaha is his beloved team, even though he had a short infamous stint at Ducati, something both sides will seek to forget.

So the stage was set up like only Dorna could set it up. Pecco, the nervous but deserving dog who led Ducati out of its decades-long darkness, and Fabulous, the venerable and incredibly lovable, albeit world champion, dog , cursed with a less than ideal bike.

It’s almost a movie script, isn’t it?

There is nothing particularly strange in Practice and Qualification meetings. Bezzecchi’s bike caught fire, Marini sped terrifyingly, Marquez was treating a cold but still dazzled quickly on the odd lap, and Jack Miller once again filled our hearts with hope.

The front seats are nothing special. Martin on pole, followed by Marquez and Miller. Behind them are Fabulous, Rins and Maverick – who seem to be finding their feet pretty late into the season. The third row is Binder, Pecco and Zarco.

The times are all very close – the top 16 are less than a second apart. Pecco had seemed hesitant throughout the Qualifiers. Understandably not willing to risk the championship on the track caused a few burns due to the sudden cold right tire being asked to hang up.

But no one really expected what happened when the lights went out. Rins have been charged through a lot of them, and then just keep charging. He had an excellent and dominating race – and I’m sure HRC would once again want to know why Puig decided to hire the unimpressive Mir, instead of his absolutely brilliant teammate.

Martin, Miller and Marquez followed Rins, with Fabulous and Pecco right behind them. Fabulous was aggressive from the start. He and Pecco did get a little closer, which cost Pecco a wing from the Ducati and Tardozzi’s heart rate monitor to spike to triple digits.

Fabulous quickly overtakes Jack, but Jack overtakes him in an instant, as does Pecco. Fabulous fought back savagely, and overcame Pecco and began chasing Jack. Pecco is now probably wondering if this fight should be left alone. But the Italian had one more pass for Fabulous in him and it stuck for a while.

Brad Binder, trying out a new chassis he seems to enjoy, has moved himself down to seventh place behind Fabulous, who once again overtook Pecco.

Pol Espargaro visits his beloved pebble once more, his brother, the Captain, has retreated into the pit, a few rounds later taken by his teammate, Maverick. Aprilia’s championship campaign ended with a groan rather than a bang.

Bagnaia now looks like it’s holding everyone back. The first of those is Brad Binder, who has clearly hid his enormous talent under a rock for most of the season. On this day, the rock is gone and Brad is on fire.

Alex Marquez found the smaller rocks, so did Cal Crutchlow, and Fabulous went as fast as the leaders, but he was still in fourth place. He needs to go faster than the leaders if he has any hope of winning – and even then, Pecco needs to finish in 15^order or collision.

Marc Marquez crashed on Turn 8, while Rins, Martin and Miller kept Fabulous on. But nothing kept Brad Binder at all. He went to Fabulous.

Pecco, back in seventh place, now holds Joan Mir and Miguel Oliveira. Mir walks past him and Oliveira begins to increase his size as well.

Further forward, it looks like Fabulous has won a bit of a favor from Jack, but Brad is also gaining Fabulous’s backing. Zarco takes this opportunity to plow some rocks, while Miguel uses the Turn Four to get around Pecco.

Binder also took fourth from Fabulous in the Fourth Round, and I’m wondering if the South Africans can pull Fabulous forward. Ten more laps to go, and Pecco was steadily drifting back toward the madmen.

Luca Marini then overcame Pecco and now he’s in the Beast’s clutches.

Rins, hammering in, started to look unmanageable as the lap ticked, and the championship belonged only to Bagnaia. At this stage, Rins will have to fall (maybe vague), Martin will need to collide (more likely), Miller will have to eat gravel (certainly possible), and both Binder and Bagnaia will need to be. fall down.

It all started to seem improbable rather than impossible. But as soon as Binder passed Jack, Jack crashed. Fabulous finished fourth, and the Ducati garage was praying and convulsing like a medieval congregation.

Binder then flew over Martin, again in the Fourth Turn, and then all just settled down and headed in that direction until the end.

Pecco Bagnaia is now the new world champion. The first Italian to win on an Italian bike since Giacomo Agostini in 1972.

Then we were treated to a very trivial celebration, involving mathematics. Obviously, if you add up Pecco’s two previous race numbers, you get his current race number. Who knows? Who cares? And are these the t-shirts that the Factory Ducati team has made over the past three rounds?

Sure, there’s the beautiful golden helmet, which resides in a box that Pecco unlocked using these six race numbers. No dancing bears, no chorus girls, no frantic girlfriends running down the track – without any note or wow factor.

Yes, I still miss Rossi. And Jorge Lorenzo. They know how to make it memorable when they win.

And that’s the thing of the year.

Thank you all for your interest in my report, and thank you Trev for the show. By the time you read this, we will have Valencia checked and we are starting to prepare for next year. See you all again, I guess.

MotoGP Valencia 2022 results

MotoGP Championship Score Ranking

MotoGP Builders Championship

MotoGP Team Championship Ranking