2015 MotoGP Valencia: Jorge wins it all!

The 2015 MotoGP season culminates in Valencia, Spain. Anticipation for this final round, buoyed by the recent clash between Rossi and Marquez in Sepang, was at a fever pitch. 110,130 rabid fans trooped to the Circuit Ricardo Tormo to see if local hero Jorge Lorenzo can overcome the seven-point lead of Valentino Rossi to claim his third championship title in MotoGP. Or will The Doctor overcome all odds to win his 10th career championship?

All the chatter in the days leading up to the race, was that of the Sepang incident. Valentino allegedly kicked the bike of Marc Marquez, causing the latter to crash out of the race. This brought about an investigation by Race Direction, who later deemed Rossi guilty and slapped a three-point penalty on the Yamaha rider. This meant that Vale will have to start the final race at the back of the grid. But the Rossi camp, feeling a punishment was not warranted, lodged an appeal. On further review, the penalty was upheld and Rossi was forced to start on the last row of the grid.

Qualifying saw Jorge Lorenzo take P1 ahead of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. This meant that Rossi, should he be able to carve his way up the field, has to contend with both Repsol Hondas and his teammate to secure enough points to win it all.

At the start, Lorenzo got a great start. Jorge led the field into turn 1 and from that time on, he was not challenged, not even one bit. Lorenzo had only one thing on his mind: win the race and hope Rossi falters.

Vale took on the challenge of climbing up the standings. By the first corner of the first lap, Rossi was up six places, and by the third corner of the same lap, he was up 10 spots. There was no doubt about it: The Doctor was on a valiant charge, and no one wanted to get in his way. He was going for it all.

As the laps came tumbling down, Vale was up to P4 with 18 laps to go. It was all or nothing for the 36-year old Italian. He made no reservations about passing the rest of the field. He took every opportunity to pass, but, in doing so, ate up his tires. The Yamaha had no grip to mount a challenge during the closing laps. Rossi was left with no other option but to just hope that Lorenzo makes a mistake or both Hondas pass the race-leading Movistar Yamaha.

Vale kept hounding the leaders but the top three ran away with the race. Lorenzo didn’t put a foot wrong. He was riding like a man possessed. He was just so consistent and untouchable whenever leading a race.

Both Marquez and Pedrosa tried to make a race of it, keeping the pressure on Lorenzo to the very end, but the two-time MotoGP champion had other things in mind. He wanted to win the championship in style. He wanted to win both the race and championship, and nothing was going to stand in his way.

Jorge Lorenzo took the checkered flag to win the 2015 Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana-Ricardo Tormo, and with it the Riders Championship! Marc Marquez crossed the line in second with Dani Pedrosa following his teammate to take P3. Even with his gallant charge, all that Rossi could muster was P4.

Jorge took to the podium like the champion that he is, celebrating in style to take the fifth title of his career, with three championships in the premier class. This was Jorge’s 61st career win, 61st pole position, and 135th podium in 232 career starts.

Jorge Lorenzo is now the 2015 MotoGP World Champion!