Francesco Bagnaia is the new MotoGP World Champion! Ducati storm to title after 15 years

The incredible 2022 MotoGP season’s come to an end with Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia taking the title as the new MotoGP World Champion. This is the first time in 15 years since Ducati won the title and the first time an Italian has been crowned premier class World Champion since Casey Stoner 2009. Been running second in the championship Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo finished at P4. While Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins stormed to the first position at Valencia, (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) finished P2 and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) in third.
Rins qualified on the middle of Row 2 but made a brilliant start and led the field to the first corner, ahead of pole-sitter Martin and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team). Quartararo took a wide berth at the Turn 2 braking zone, emerging behind Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and in a battle for fifth with none other than Bagnaia. When Marquez attacked Miller for third on the opening lap, Quartararo squeezed his Yamaha down the inside of the Australian’s Ducati at Turn 8 as well, and he was up to fourth.
Miller hit back at the start of Lap 2, forcing Quartararo to pick up his YZR-M1 at Turn 2 with a pass which incentivised Bagnaia to also have a look. The title contenders made contact which pulled a wing off the factory-entered Ducati, but Bagnaia was ahead of his key rival. It stayed that way until Lap 4 when Quartararo was down his inside at Turn 6 and back into fifth position – but facing a task to catch the top four.

Oliveira would pass Mir for fifth, with the 2020 World Champion, therefore, classified sixth, ahead of Marini and Bastianini. Bagnaia found himself under pressure from Quartararo’s Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammate Franco Morbidelli in the final laps but beat the Italian to ninth position.
Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) finished 11th, ahead of Tech3 KTM Factory Racing duo Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner, then Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in 14th and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing MotoGP) in the last points-paying position.
Joining Miller on the list of retirements was Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) after a crash on Lap 16, plus both the Aprilia Racing entries of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales, both the Repsol Honda Team entries of Marquez and Pol Espargaro, and also Darryn Binder (WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team).
MotoGP Race Top 10
1. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar)
2. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) + 0.396
3. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) + 1.059
4. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 1.911
5. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) + 7.122
6. Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) + 7.735
7. Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) + 8.524
8. Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP) + 12.038
9. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) + 14.441
10. Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 14.676