UPDATED: Valencia MotoGP, Ricardo Tormo – Race Results

*Rookie.

Francesco Bagnaia has been crowned 2023 MotoGP world champion after title rival Jorge Martin ed out while trying to pass Marc Marquez, riding in his Repsol Honda farewell.

Bagnaia is MotoGP’s first repeat champion since Marquez in 2019 and the first to do it while carrying the #1 plate since Mick Doohan in 1998.

Martin had already clipped the back of race leader Bagnaia’s factory Ducati early on, dropping the Pramac rider to eighth.

It was while frantically trying to recover that his lunge inside Marquez ended in disaster for them both.

• Valencia: Final 2023 MotoGP World Championship standings

Bagnaia, having been informed of Martin’s exit, was then passed by the KTMs of Brad Binder and Jack Miller.

But Binder ran wide at mid-distance, rejoining in sixth, then later had to give a place back after punting Alex Marquez out of the way.

Miller was thus on course to become the first rider to win MotoGP races on three different brands of bike… Only to out, with 9 laps to go, at the same Turn 10 as Binder’s mistake!

KTM’s double misery put Bagnaia back into the lead ahead of Johann Zarco.

But the drama wasn’t over. The pair were hunted down by Fabio di Giannantonio with the trio nose-to-tail by the start of the penultimate lap!

The departing Gresini rider, whose GP22 was puffing occasional smoke, sliced under Zarco soon after, but Bagnaia stayed wheel-perfect and di Giannantonio shook his head as he was left with no room to pass.

Marquez, thrown into a full somersault by the Martin contact, was sent to the medical centre for checks but later seen back in the Repsol Honda garage.

An opening lap incident between Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi had ended with the Italian ing out. The FIM Stewards ruled it had been a racing incident.

We now await the tyre pressure data to confirm the race results, but Martin’s DNF means any low-pressure infringements won’t change the title result.

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Bagnaia received a pre-race boost when he was promoted to pole by a three-place grid penalty for Maverick Vinales, who failed to immediately exit the track after being shown black and orange flags in warm-up.

“4

Other riders joining Marc Marquez and di Giannantonio in saying farewell to their current teams today were Franco Morbidelli (Monster Yamaha), Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati), Pol Espargaro (GASGAS Tech3) and Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati).

Most riders chose the hard front and medium rear tyres for the 27 laps, with the exception of Zarco (medium front) and Vinales (soft rear).

Quartararo was back on the grid despite missing warm-up due to a high fever and sickness.

Joan Mir, who underwent checks in hospital after a Friday morning fall, withdrew from the remainder of the weekend but hopes to ride in Tuesday’s test.

Reigning Moto2 champion Pedro Acosta will make his MotoGP debut, with GASGAS Tech3, at the Valencia test.

The Valencia circuit was resurfaced ahead of the 2023 event.