Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin will fight for the world champion title at the last Grand Prix of the 2024 season, in Barcelona. This is the seventh time this has happened in the MotoGP era (since 2002). Here are the previous six.
Valencia 2006 :
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) arrives 8 points ahead of his runner-up Nicky Hayden (Honda), hit a few days earlier by his teammate Dani Pedrosa. Starting in pole position, the Italian fell in the race and finished 13th. His American rival finished 3rd and became world champion by 5 points.
Valencia 2013 :
Leader with 13 points ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), Marc Marquez (Honda) knows that he does not need to win to win his first title. He fulfilled his part of the contract by finishing 3rd, while his opponent and fellow Spaniard won. Marquez is therefore crowned for 4 points.
Valencia 2015 :
Like nine years earlier, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) entered the final in the lead, this time by 7 points ahead of Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). But a penalty for an incident at Sepang with Marc Marquez (Honda) forced the Italian to start last. He managed to move up to 4th, three positions behind Lorenzo who won. The Spaniard also takes the title by 5 points.
Valencia 2017 :
Challenged by Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), Marc Marquez (Honda) arrives with a 21-point lead over the Italian. The latter falls during the race, becoming a spectator of the coronation of his Spanish rival. He finished 3rd of the day, and thus increased his final lead to 37 points.
Valencia 2022 :
After catching up with a 91-point deficit on Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) – that was the gap at mid-season – Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) is ahead of the Frenchman by 23 points. “El Diablo” beat Pecco by finishing 4th, but the Italian's 9th place secured him the world title by 17 points.
Valencia 2023 :
The duel between Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) and Jorge Martin (Ducati) livens up the end of the season. Winner of the sprint on Saturday, the Spaniard went from 21 to 14 lengths behind before the last race. Having fallen, he helplessly watched the success of the Italian, who became a double MotoGP world champion with 39 points.
