MotoGP Valencia 2 *Spoilers*

[Exage03040]

Well that was certainly an interesting weekend...

Spoilers

Credit: MotoGP.com Jack Miller

Hopefully you were smart like me and didn't wake up to see the plastering of the world championship somewhere before watching the race!

Fabio Quartararo went into this race smack dab in the middle of the grid after having to endure Q1 and Q2. Tied with Alex Rins on points at 125 a piece and one position ahead of leader Joan Mir at 162. The first lap caught him out with a bonsai move in traffic. This caused him a huge abort wide and dropped to the back of the pack. The frustrated frenchman would make up positions but would eventually push a little too hard and wash out the front ending any hopes of the riders championship title this year.

Alex Rins had an bad weekend. A non-forecast damp FP3 condition caught out many riders banking to push for the 10 spots in Q2 in the session. While the track dried in the final minutes to make some challenging laps ultimately he was forced into Q1 and failed there in 4th to end up starting 14th on the grid. Race day however went better, but unfortunately not perfect. From 14th Rins managed to survive and ultimately pass teammate Mir to secure 4th place. It simply wasn't enough.

Joan Mir while clearly nervous did what he needed to do: Survive. And survive he did. Following a poor Q2 that dumped him last in the session at 12th he ran a solid race without taking unnecessary risks. With the chips fallen and a 7th place finish, Joan Mir is the 2020 MotoGP World Champion.

Credit: MotoGP.com Joan Mir

At the front. Takaaki Nakagami dropped down to 5th from 3rd on the grid and was conservative for the first half of the race fighting back from Miguel Oliveira to take 4th with Rins right behind. After which he began the later race attack taking a solid 2s out of 3rd place Pol Espargaro and dropping Rins. Unfortunately nerves again got the better of him with a late braking drop into the final corner on a pass to the inside towards the race end. Disappointing as he did indeed have a bike for the podium.

Franco Morbidelli lead the race with Jack Miller following. Both able to run away from Pol Espargaro. Franco managed to get a few seconds on Jack, but Thriller Miller also began a late race attack timing it for the final lap. Getting a drive and slipstream to the white flag, Miller rocketed past Morbidelli into a hot T1 which began a duel for position up until the final sector. Morbidelli was just able to close the door and put enough space to finish first. It's a lap to replay a few times though.

Credit MotoGP.com Franco Morbidelli

Race Results

https://resources.motogp.com/files/results/2020/VAL/MotoGP/RAC/Classification.pdf?v1_f32cd3ed

[flatisflat]

That last lap was such perfect motorcycle racing. Good clean moves and A LOT of them.
All of Joan's comments about 'pressure being for other people experiencing real things', yeah well, apparently being up for title contention qualifies, Mir. So happy to see him get through it!
Nakagami needs to learn the Marquez trick of falling off the bike on only Fridays and Saturdays (Jerez 1 2020 notwithstanding).
Fabio was a championship favorite since Day 1, and a solid contender for most of the season. And yet, here we are, one more race to go and it's his teammate (on last year's bike) sitting 2nd in the standings. I'm actually a bit curious to see how Vale performs under the Petronas banner next year.

[Exage03040]

@flatisflat

It was great, Circuit Ricardo Tormo seems difficult to find passing places unless the chaser has a distinct advantage in edge grip. It was a solid plan from Miller but Franco was fast.

Yeah, some nimrods are going on about how Mir wouldn't have won against Marc, but Marc isn't there so "Winnings, winning".

He was great for that first part of the seasons. I firmly believe the Yamaha was the quicker overall bike for those tracks until they went to Austria x2 . Half way through both the Suzukis found some sort of second wind against Yamaha and Ducati. It's actually very strange.

We all love Vale but I think the sun is really starting to set. Tough year for him.