The 2022 MotoGP World Championship was decided at the final race earlier today in Valencia. Defending champ Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) had to win the race to have any chance at this year’s title. He fell short by finishing fourth today, while title rival Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) took his first MotoGP World Championship title by finishing ninth.
The race itself saw Alex Rins (Suzuki) take the win for his Japanese manufacturer that is now retiring from MotoGP. Brad Binder (KTM) was the fastest rider on the track as he consistently closed on the leaders and finished in second place, ahead of Jorge Martin (Ducati) in third.
So the final title standings see Pecco Bagnaia as champion, Fabio Quartararo second, and Enea Bastianini (Ducati) third.
For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can see the full championship points standings here, as well as find additional details on the MotoGP site.
Too many Ducatis on the grid.
They are willing to supply. It used to be Honda that packed the grid with leases but back then if you weren’t in the factory team (Honda or Yamaha) you had zero chances to win. Ducati isn’t afraid to supply satellite teams with machines competitive to their own factory bikes. They’re making the Japanese makes look terrible.
Congrats to the new champ! Could not believe he was slicing and dicing in the early stages. Amazing that the team boss didn’t have a coronary. Would have loved to be in Bologna for the Big Party.
My wish list for next season…
• The MI gets on par with the red and orange bikes, in terms of acceleration and top speed.
• Frankie returns to being Frankie on his new, more competitive M1. Watching him tool around to a desultory fifteenth place week after week is no fun.
•: #93 is able to mix it up with the leaders not just in qualifying, where he always seems to benefit from a shameless tow, but during the races.
• Rins has a competitive new Honda beneath him, so that we don’t see him starring in “Pol Espargaro: The Sequel.”
• Mir doesn’t crash his brains out trying to hang with his maniacal teammate on an unfamiliar ride.
• Somewhere in a sullen office back in Hamamatsu some dude with a dog-eared old Kevin Schwantz poster hanging on the wall above the minifridge gets a wild John Belushi hair up his ass and says to his corporate buddies, “Hey, what happened to us? When did we become nothing but a bunch of pocket-protector accountant weasels? We were always about performance, competition, winning. This is bullshit. This is embarrassing. Let’s get back to racing. Call Carmelo. Tell him we want back in. Oh, and someone call our buddy over at Kawasaki. Let’s get Big Green to get off their butts and do this, too. Japan, Inc. ain’t just Honda and Yamaha, people. Chop chop!”
• Zarco finally busts that MotoGP cherry, and it’s in a dry race at LeMans.
• Maverick finally gets his hormonal levels stabilized, and becomes Consistently Fast Maverick again.
• Binder figures out this whole qualifying thing.
• Jack remains Jack. Win or lose.
•: Luca, like Zarco, finally busts his MotoGP cherry, only at Mugello. I don’t know why, but I like Luca Marini. Seems like a good dude. Classy. Humble. Solid head on his shoulders.
• Both Espargaro brothers get out before they get seriously hurt, or worse.
• Pecco’s sister finally finds a man of her own.
Between the botched coding and the duplicate post that’s sure to follow, this didn’t exactly go as planned.
🙂
Great post!!! Can I add a few???
– Maverick doesn’t get his hormonal levels stabilized and quits before the season begins, gets replaced in a surprise move by Pedro Acosta
– Jack, Pol and Agusto all take to the KTM/GasGas like ducks to water
– Miguel and Raul show what the Aprilia really can do
– A wall goes up in the box between Enea and Pecco beginning with the first race
– A. Marquez gels with the Ducati
– Taki stays healthy for the entire season and has a decent bike to ride
– Rins and Mir solve all the Honda’s problems during testing and Honda actually LISTENS to them
– Aleix performs a risk/reward analysis and correctly decides (unlike Tom Brady) that his family is more important to him and retires before the season starts. He accepts a job as a rider coach on the Moto3 GasGas team. In a very surprising move, he is replaced by Izan Guevara at Aprilia. That will do it I think.
Kevin Schwantz was a tough fighter according to Barry Sheene comments.
Hopefully Tuesday’s test doesn’t result in the 2023 Yamaha being a bit faster, only to remain the caboose in the MotoGP train when all the other manufacturers also produce new, faster machines.
Seeing one guy armed only with a knife forced into a gun battle against an entire army of M-16-toting speedbots teaming up to support one rider against him, yeah, this season really sucked. It never felt anything like a level playing field. Pecco basically had to toss this championship away in order not to win it, and he nearly did so. Fabio had to risk tossing it away every lap all season long in order to remain competitive, and that’s exactly what he did.
The whole affair felt a lot like watching the lions against the Christians.
I don’t know at what level other teams tested but FQ has tested on the MY23 rig and he was very satisfied with the improvements. I think he was seeing top-3 or 4 trap speeds among the other teams testing, including Ducati.
Morbidelli’s performance yesterday was encouraging. Hopefully Yamaha and Honda can get their packages back to a baseline that more riders can be successful on.
“FQ has tested on the MY23 rig and he was very satisfied with the improvements. ”
And after Tuesday’s test both he and Morbidelli are asking, “where’s the new engine we tried earlier in the year?”. Still down on power..
Binder was amazing. He was putting that bike anywhere he wanted. Cant wait for next year.
I really like Binder. I’d love for KTM to get the bike sorted enough for him to at least be able to fight at the front regularly.
Such a shame Suzuki is leaving. Their bike was the best looking of all the aero-tainted monstrosities on the grid.
Good for Ducati. Taking into account that prices for brand products are coming closer to MV.
I bet Rins feels as good as Bagnaia right now.
Ummm… tell me again why Suzuki decided to bow out of MotoGP ? (Winning two of the final three races).
Ummm… read my post below again and again.
The presumed answer would be that Suzuki’s 2020 championship did not generate a sufficient enough uptick in sales to justify continued expenditure.
Aprilia on the other hand contributes a pretty large increase in sales to Aleix’s performance in MotoGP this year.
Strange. Aprilia is very expensive
Aprilia makes a lot of 125’s and scooters that they sell to young people in east Asia. So do Honda and Yamaha.
They are also going to discontinue GSXR1000 sales in Europe and UK. The current model is five years old and does not pass Euro5 emissions. Apparently they don’t feel that it’s worth the effort to make a new one.
You know sport bike sales are in the toilet when…
It’s been many years since Suzuki has introduced a new from-the-ground-up model. Presumably because they have no money to design and tool-up for such a new model. Suzuki has been cash-strapped ever since their disastrous team-up with Volkswagen failed.
Suzuki’s motorcycle sales have been slipping for years. For 2023 their lineup will shrink precipitously as they apparently can’t afford to upgrade all of their bikes to meet increasing emissions standards, especially in Europe.
Suzuki now makes most of their money making cars (mini and micro cars), not motorcycles. What is the point of sinking millions of dollars into MotoGP racing if they don’t have new products that motorcycle racing fans will want to buy?
another reason for Suzuki leaving MotoGP, could be they got caught manipulating their emission numbers during tests, much like VW. The penalty for that cheating, might have been too much, and the bean counters always have to be convinced of the connection between racing and sales, this time it just corporate pink slip time. Suzuki is such a small company, even Kawasaki doesnt compete in MotoGP.
I wonder how long Suzuki will stay out of MotoGP this time.
Also, the tests are on Tuesday because Monday is the sober-up day.
Yep. Suzuki is the cheapest one. Yet GSX-R was the most dangerous and powerful bike in the world for years.
Suzuki has really lost market momentum. They’re letting the GSXR1000 go extinct in Europe because they can’t meet Euro5 with it and apparently haven’t valued it enough to develop a new engine that can make it.
Some of their current bikes seem really compelling but they’re not offering as complete or fresh a line as their direct competition.
Sometimes it does not pay to improve something before you try to sell it. Suzuki probably calculates that R & D would cost more than any additional profits created by updated most products. They have been netting more by just offering mostly old stuff.
That’s rarely a successful strategy in the long term. They don’t make anything that anyone loves enough to choose old over new (think Converse All-Star, Ray-Ban glasses)..
They currently have some patents out there related to a performance oriented I-4 with a counter-rotating crank. Perhaps they just couldn’t get it to market before the sunset if the current gsxr.
Or maybe they’ve decided to do nothing with that either.
Suzuki is about to release a couple of bikes with a new 776cc parallel twin in standard and ADV flavors. They will include all the electronic garbage included on the 90+hp bikes.
I wonder how far down the market the ride by wire stuff is going to infiltrate. There has to be a certain percentage of riders like me who will not consider anything so equipped. I hope it doesn’t become as difficult as finding a phone with a headphone jack.
I’ve never chosen a ride based on how well they’re doing in MotoGP. There’s a vast difference and a number of reasons why a certain team wins and another team loses. What you buy for the street is light years away from winning any MotoGP championships anyways so it doesn’t enter into the decision…for me. I’ve always been a Suzuki fan and owned a number of their bikes, but would just as soon own a Honda or Yamaha if what they’re offering at the time fits my needs a little better. No Ducatis in my arsenal and probably never will be no matter how well they do in racing. They do sound nice but from what I’ve seen can be a PITA to own. I’d rather ride than have a bike in the shop waiting for it’s $1000 finicky valve adjustment to be performed.
Finally after 15 years, Ducati has a championship again. It was theirs to loose, but as hard at Bagnaia tried to, he finally put it all together and WON! I cant wait to read about the Monday tests. Suzuki leaving MotoGP because the millions spent there, just doesnt equate into new bike sales, they will be better off so they think, spending all that cash on product development. Few realize Suzuki is a small company, Kawasaki doesnt even compete in MotoGP. What happened to aprilla, I dont know? It will be a long winter before all the racing starts again.
Why do MotoGP when they have retired the current GSX-R1000, (perhaps forever) ?
In a top 10 list of recent motorcycle manufacturers and sales, none of the European brands even show up. Don’t even mention Indian or Harley Davidson. Of the Japanese manufacturers, Honda is number one, Yamaha & Suzuki are in, but Kawasaki is not.
MOTOGP is a sport with its own set of rules controlling development. A bubble in a far more complicated world. Many manufacturers are looking at the future beyond the microcosm of MOTOGP.
I suppose Kawasaki are fairly busy building ships and the occaisional aeroplane…Not called Kawasaki Heavy Industries for nothing!