MotoGP Valencia: A good day for Repsol Honda

The last race of the season promised to be a firecracker - and it just wasn't that in the initial stages of the race. Marc Marquez jumped out early into a lead, and Dani Pedrosa had a lightning quick start to slot into second place, which was the ideal situation for the championship leader. However, things in MotoGP have a way of shaking themselves up.

 Johann Zarco, as always, managed to make his way to the front, but Marquez looked extremely comfortable sitting in second place. The gap between the two never changed over many laps. Behind the leading trio, the two factory Ducatis of Lorenzo and Dovizioso circulated, never really cutting the gap to Pedrosa in third. Dovi had a slight advantage in pace compared to Lorenzo, but he didn't have enough to make it past the Spaniard.

Halfway through the race, not much had changed, but Ducati finally sent Lorenzo the dashboard message to switch to Mapping 8 for the engine - meaning 'move over, let Dovi through' but just like the last time around he probably didn't see it. So Ducati put a clear message on his pit board, to drop one place to Dovizioso - but somehow it looked like Lorenzo didn't read his pit board, either, because a few laps later the Italian rider was still trying to get past. Meanwhile, at the front, Marquez got bored of the procession and decided to go out in style. He started dueling with Zarco, only to go into turn 1 way too hot, and as we've come to expect of Marquez, saved a crash with his arm and knee, rode into the dirt, kept the bike upright in the gravel, and rejoined the race in fifth place.

With Marquez out, Pedrosa had no reason to stay sane, so he started attacking Zarco. He also managed to get the best of him, eventually winning for the second time this season. Behind the leading duo, though, Dovi was still trying to find a way through on Lorenzo - only for Lorenzo to make an unforced error and fall in the gravel. Moments - and a few corners - later, Dovi did the same. The challenge for the championship was over, by Ducati.

Alex Rins had the ride of his life, coming through from tenth place at the start to finish fourth. On the way there he had to make his way past Ianonne and Rossi, no easy task. Jack Miller, in his final appearance as a Honda rider, also climbed from 12th place at the start to 7th. The Valencia race had one of the highest numbers of crashed riders, with eight. The total number of crashes was nine, however, as Bautista crashed twice.