2015 Valencia GP: Lorenzo wins the race and crown, Rossi the heart

After the Sepang incident, the final race of the season was supposed to be an interesting affair and it didn’t disappoint on that note. Valentino Rossi was given a penalty post the incident with Marc Marquez which relegated him to last position of the grid but the Italian rider announced that he would treat the qualifying session as a normal affair and would give it his best shot. Such was the enthusiasm around the final race of the season that the Valencia circuit was completely full with spectators during qualifying! Rossi did his best to enter Q2 but he crashed on his final lap while his main rival Jorge Lorenzo blasted the lap record to grab a well deserved pole position amplifying the difficulty for Rossi. If Lorenzo finished first, Rossi had to finish second to take the championship title as he had a slender lead of seven points coming into the finale.

The Yamaha rider made a blistering start to run away from the Repsol Honda duo of Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. But all attention was at the back of the grid as Rossi too was on a charge and had passed five riders before entering the first corner of the race. The Italian rider knew that he had to make places in the opening stages of the race so as to not fall back too far behind Lorenzo. Such was the pace of the MotoGP legend that he had passed over 10 riders by end of the first lap. With 28 laps remaining in the race, Rossi broke into the top 10 position and it was game on at Valencia. Up ahead, Lorenzo was in his zone and was notching one after another fastest laps of the race as the Repsol Honda pair found it difficult to close down on his lead. 

Ducati rider Andrea Iannone ended his woeful 2015 season with a crash as he ran wide and this meant Rossi was now up in ninth place. The Italian rider faced some stiff competition from Bradley Smith and he was losing crucial time to Lorenzo. After a two lap fight, Rossi was finally able to pass Smith and grab eighth place. The MotoGP legend kept on fighting and pushing hard as he passed the Espargaro duo, Petrucci and finally Dovizioso to rise up to fourth position. It seemed post this that Rossi had hit a wall as the leading pack of riders were almost 16 seconds ahead of them and the Italian rider had burned his tyres in the process of fighting the entire grid on his way to fourth place and just didn’t have the same race pace. 

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As the situation stood, Lorenzo would win the championship by five points and the only way Rossi could have won the championship was with the help of the Honda riders. Such was the irony of the championship title that the Honda duo would decide which of the Yamaha rider will wear the 2015 MotoGP crown. The pecking order remained unchanged until the closing stages of the race and it was uncharacteristic to see Marquez not pull a single move on Lorenzo the entire race although he was on his rear tyre. Pedrosa was on a charge in the last few laps as he had conserved his tyres for the final assault. Pedrosa passed Marquez and was well on his way to overtake Lorenzo but his team-mate made an aggressive move on him which made him run wide and back to third place on the grid. 

These penultimate lap shenanigans allowed Lorenzo some breathing space as he crossed the finish line first to become the 2015 MotoGP champion. It was sad to see that Marquez had played a huge part in deciding the 2015 crown as he almost safeguarded him against Pedrosa’s assault. The 2015 season of MotoGP should have been remembered for the tons of racing action and the entertainment the riders provided us. Alas, though it shall be remembered for all the controversies and dirty games in the closing stages of the season played by Marquez and Lorenzo and to a certain extent Rossi. Lorenzo was definitely the fastest rider of the season and he deserved the crown, but the manner in which he earned it left a bitter state among the hordes of MotoGP fans and the authorities need to make sure that such politics don’t mortify the beautiful sport in the future.