Valencia GP: Race Report

Overcast weather, frequent showers and a wet track - these are not the most favourable conditions for a race. Or at least that’s what we thought when we arrived at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. But, boy were we wrong. Not only did the city come alive despite the gloomy weather, we also witnessed one of the most exhilarating race of the season!

Qualifiers

From Saturday onwards, the track had been too wet for slicks It wasn’t until FP4 when the conditions looked favourable, allowing the riders to push their limits. The one who took the most advantage of this situation was Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales who clinched an important pole position - his first after Aragon last year. All eyes were then on the 2018 champ, Marc Marquez. Unfortunately, the Spaniard crashed right after the third corner, rolling into the gravel. While Marquez did join the race again with 6 minutes remaining on the clock, he had to content himself with a 5th position on the grid. Following him was KTM’s Pol Espargaro.

Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi had a fairly disastrous qualifying session as his lack of pace didn’t even manage to get into Q2, and only managed a lowly 16th in the grid. Following Vinales closely were Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. Both the riders put in a consistent performance throughout qualifying - something, which would help them the next day. Racing in his final GP for Honda, Dani Pedrosa settled for a third row finish (9th).

Qualifying results - first row

• Maverick Vinales - Yamaha
• Alex Rins - Suzuki
• Andrea Dovizioso - Ducati

Main race

While Saturday had been favourable to the riders, Sunday proved to be chaotic, to say the least. Starting the race on wet tyres, Alex Rins quickly took the lead leaving Vinales behind by almost two seconds after the opening lap. Things got even worse for the Yamaha rider as rider after rider passed him before a crash pulled him out of the race.

The soaking conditions and ever intensifying rain took its toll on the race with over seven riders, including Marc Marquez crashing out of the race, before the red-flag was shown. By then, however, Valentino Rossi had climbed his way into the top three after starting 16th on the grid.

The race restarted with the front row now consisting of Rins, Dovi and Rossi respectively, and only 14 laps of racing ahead. But as luck would have it, it started pouring heavily again which did restrict the riders from going all-out on the track. Dovi managed to get past Rins after sitting behind him for little over a lap and began to pull away at the front. Rossi on the other hand, took quite some time to overtake Rins, but by the time he did, Dovi looked almost untouchable.

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In his futile chase attempt, the Italian, unfortunately, joined the list of high-profile crashes of the day, with five laps to go. Taking advantage of the situation were Rins and Espargaro, who finished second and third respectively behind Dovizioso. The latter achieving his best finish of the season. Today’s condition also restricted Dani Pedrosa from going all-out in the last GP of his career, or at least that’s what he said during the press conference. The Spaniard settled for a fourth position in his last ever race. Rossi managed to remount and finish 13th - a result which saw him settling for just three points

Sunday really proved to be KTM’s day, with wins in the Moto2 & Moto3 category, along with a podium finish in MotoGP. It was also the first race since 2007 at Misano to NOT feature a Yamaha or a Honda rider on the podium.

Standings

• Andrea Dovizioso - Ducati
• Alex Rins - Suzuki
• Pol Espargaro - KTM

Special Mentions

The Moto2 and Moto3 riders too saw their fair bit of action, with Miguel Oliveira and Can Oncu (KTM) grabbing the top spots respectively. With the latter winning his first GP on his debut, and also becoming the youngest rider to win a GP at 15 years and 115 days old. Honda Asia Racing’s Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (Moto3) and Tetsuta Nagashima (Moto2) also put an impressive performance to finish 8th and 12th respectively.

Not to mention, Repsol Honda also secured the Team Championship, earning a back-to-back MotoGP Triple Crowns - Riders Title (won in Japan), Constructors Title (won in Malaysia).

That being said, while the Valencia GP didn’t have much of an impact on overall rankings, it did give us a brief look of what we can expect going into the next season. And yes, we can’t wait for the 2019 QatarGP either!