While Honda’s Dani Pedrosa cruised to victory at a drying Valencia circuit, teammate Casey Stoner fought back from tenth to grab a fitting podium finish on his final ever MotoGP outing. The 27-year-old, double world champion will retire at the end of the year, citing a loss of interest in the sport as his reason for calling it quits.

 

Pedrosa chose to start on slick tyres from the pit lane while others chose wets, a choice which payed off as he was the fastest man on track as early as lap five and worked his way up through the field to take the lead. From the moment he took the lead he never looked like throwing it away, eventually crossing the line almost a minute ahead of anyone else.

 

Elsewhere, it was less of a dream final outing on a Ducati for eight-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi who eventually finished down in tenth place, a lap down on Pedrosa. Rossi will be hoping to forget the two year partnership with Ducati which never produced anything like the results expected by all in the paddock. Rossi returns to Yamaha next season, where he won four world titles, to partner 2012 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. Lorenzo and Rossi had a somewhat rocky relationship when they last partnered each other and it will be interesting to see whether this has changed now that Lorenzo is the team leader and Rossi the number two rider. Lorenzo was fortunate to walk away after he strayed onto a wet part of the track which resulted in him landing hard on his head after a massive high-side. He was trying to lap Briton James Ellison at the time but was guilty of being too impatient.

 

Another Briton, Cal Crutchlow, looked set to claim his third podium finish of the year once Lorenzo had retired only to throw it down the road himself with a few laps to go. This meant that Yamaha test rider, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, who was filling in for injured Ben Spies, found himself on the podium on the same day as the birth of his second child and was understandably emotional. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was Alex Espargaro leading the first three laps on a CRT (Claimimg Rule Team) bike, the first time a CRT has led a race since their introduction at the start of the season. Espargaro also claimed the inaugural CRT Championship, narrowly beating teammate Randy de Puniet.

 

Now as thoughts turn to next season, all eyes will be on Rossi and Yamaha to see if they can be as dominant as before. However, Stoner’s pure talent and riding ability will be sorely missed for years to come. The only question that remains is whether or not he will come back.

 

Author Sam Heath