Jorge Lorenzo of Spain won the
season-ending Valencia Moto Grand Prix ending a 12 race winless streak in his
final event before switching from Yamaha to rival Ducati. Lorenzo won from pole
position, finishing ahead of champion Marc Marquez, Andrea Iannone and
Valentino Rossi. The three-time champion, who hadn't won since the Italian GP
in May, will be joining Ducati next year after nine seasons with Yamaha.
Marquez, who was crowned world
champion two races ago, finished only a second behind Lorenzo after recovering
from a poor start that dropped him from second to seventh by the first turn at
the Valencia track in southern Spain. Dani Pedrosa fell out of contention after losing control of
his bike and falling while running seventh early in the race. Johann Zarco won
the Moto2 finale, while Brad Binder rallied from 22nd to secure victory in the
season-ending event in Moto3. Zarco and Binder had already secured the titles
in their respective series.
Lorenzo nailed the holeshot on the
factory Yamaha to lead the 21-rider field into the first turn to begin the
season-ending 30-lap Grand Prix of Valencia, in front of a massive crowd under
soft autumn sunshine. Andrea Iannone and Maverick Vinales followed. Marc
Marquez got swamped in the first turn and fell back a number of positions
coming out of the first couple of turns. A couple of laps in and Lorenzo held a
half-second lead on Iannone. Vinales was still holding third, but was coming
under pressure from Valentino Rossi and Marquez. Yonny Hernandez was the first
to crash out.
On lap nine Rossi once again got by
only to be repassed by Iannone again. The two swapped second place a couple of
times over the next few laps with Marquez and Vinales closing up, enjoying the
best view of the great battle. Ten laps in and Marquez and Iannone began going
back and forth giving Rossi just a bit of breathing room. With all this
battling going on Dovizioso quietly moved his way up to join the fray just
behind Vinales. With 13 laps to go Cal Crutchlow crashed out on the final turn.
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