Francesco Bagnaia becomes 2022 MotoGP world champion

Bagnaia defeated Quartararo to win the 2022 MotoGP world championship by a 17-point lead.

At the final Grand Prix of the season in Valencia on Sunday, Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia clinched his maiden MotoGP world championship title, when fellow competitor Fabio Quartararo came short of surpassing his points total.

Yamaha's Quartararo needed to win the race to defend his title, while Bagnaia just needed to finish 14th to capture Ducati's first MotoGP world title since 2007. Despite a challenging race in which Quartararo defeated Bagnaia on the track, ninth place at the finish line was enough for the Italian to win the title, becoming the first Italian to do so since Valentino Rossi in 2009, and the only rider in history to do so despite having five DNFs.

In the lead, Rins withstood early pressure from Jorge Martin of Pramac to secure an emotional farewell victory for Suzuki in the Japanese manufacturer's final MotoGP event. Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez were positioned in front of Rins, who took the early lead aboard after converting sixth on the grid to the holeshot. In the first turn, Quartararo briefly trailed Bagnaia, but by the second round, as the two jockeyed for sixth, he was back ahead.

On the first lap, a gutsy overtaking by Marquez on Miller's second factory Ducati into Turn 8 elevated the Honda rider to third and provided Quartararo with the opportunity to move into fourth. At the beginning of the second circuit, Quartararo defended against Miller on the run into Turn 1, but he was helpless to stop the Australian from demoting him to Turn 2. Miller allowed teammate Bagnaia to pass, which sparked a collision between the two title contenders and tore a wing off of Bagnaia's Ducati's right side. 

On lap four, into Turn 6, Quartararo passed Bagnaia to retake fifth place as the Ducati rider started to steadily slip down the order. Bagnaia dropped to tenth after being overhauled by the KTM drivers Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder, Joan Mir of Suzuki, Luca Marini on the VR46 Ducati, and Enea Bastianini of Gresini.

Quartararo was able to cut in on the leading trio once free of Bagnaia, with Marquez having carved out a 1.8s gap while the title rivals battled. But Quartararo could only finish fourth, 0.852 seconds behind Martin at the finish line. Brad Binder pulled through on the penultimate lap to take second from Martin and equal his best result of the year, with Pramac retaining the final podium position. On his final appearance for KTM, Oliveira was 5.2s behind Quartararo in fifth, with Joan Mir sixth ahead of Marini and Bastianini.

Bagnaia crossed the finish line ninth, eliciting dramatic celebrations from his entire Ducati team, fellow VR46 riders, and Valentino Rossi himself - while Quartararo was the first to applaud him on the cooldown lap. Bagnaia defeated Quartararo to win the 2022 MotoGP world championship by a 17-point lead.

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