MotoGP 2016: Lorenzo bids Yamaha farewell with victory over recovering Marquez at Valencia Grand Prix

The MotoGP rider line-up is going to look significantly different come the 2017 season that starts on 26th March with the Qatar Grand Prix. For the first time ever in his premier class career, Jorge Lorenzo will not be astride a Yamaha. But that's next year. Clearly the Spaniard was focusing on the last remaining race of the 2016 season when he ran away with a pole-to-finish victory at the Valencia Grand Prix.

The previous day Lorenzo had set a qualifying lap-record around the 14-turn, 4.070km Circuito Ricardo Tormo. He carried forward that form in the race today with frightening consistency that saw him clock almost the same lap time from the second to the 17th tour of the 24 lap race.

He was only remotely challenged by the newly crowned three-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez as the Spaniard started the race with too much wheel-spin and dropped from the front row of the grid to sixth place. The factory Honda rider eventually made his way up to second place and was by far the fastest rider over the final five laps owing to having more grip than Lorenzo. This was due to him selecting the hardest available compound for the front tyre before the race.

Despite eating into Lorenzo's lead by over half a second over the last five laps, Marquez fell short of his sixth win of the season by just 1.185 seconds. However, by the end, Lorenzo had eased his pace to nurse his bike and tyres to the finish and take his fourth win of the season.

The three-time MotoGP champion who lost his crown to Marquez this year caps a premier-class career that started in 2008 with Yamaha and spanned 155 race starts. He won 43 races, scored 106 podiums, 38 pole positions and 27 fastest laps.

He will take the Ducati seat vacated by Andrea Iannone who managed to use the prodigious grunt of the factory machine to beat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi and take the final podium position. Iannone will be off to the factory Suzuki team to fill the void left by Maverick Vinales who will join Rossi at Yamaha.

Vinales finished fifth after briefly harrying Rossi for fifth but then succumbing to the limitations of his Suzuki, which is not yet equipped to battle with the likes of Honda, Yamaha and Ducati.

Yamaha Tech 3's Pol Espargaro, Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, Suzuki's Aleix Espargaro, Yamaha Tech 3's Bradely Smith and Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista rounded out the top ten.

Honda won the year's manufacturer's title by just 13 points over Yamaha with the factory Yamaha squad winning the team's title over the Honda team by 28 points.