The championship 2022 MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix will be determined on Sunday at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, following a protracted title battle with many twists and turns.
Francesco Bagnaia leads the standings by 23 points and just has to finish 14th to become Ducati’s first MotoGP champion since Casey Stoner in 2007.
In order to defend his title, Fabio Quartararo needs to win the race and pray that bad luck strikes Bagnaiain.
2022 MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix session timings
| Session | GMT | CET | ET | PT | AEDT | JST | IST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FP1 | 08:55 | 09:55 | 04:55 | 01:55 | 19:55 | 17:55 | 14:25 |
| FP2 | 13:10 | 14:10 | 09:10 | 06:10 | 00:10¹ | 22:10 | 18:40 |
| FP3 | 08:55 | 09:55 | 04:55 | 01:55 | 19:55 | 17:55 | 14:25 |
| FP4 | 12:30 | 13:30 | 08:30 | 05:30 | 23:30 | 21:30 | 18:00 |
| Qualifying | 13:10 | 14:10 | 09:10 | 06:10 | 00:10¹ | 22:10 | 18:40 |
| Warm up | 08:40 | 09:40 | 03:40 | 00:40 | 19:40 | 17:40 | 14:10 |
| Race | 13:00 | 14:00 | 08:00 | 05:00 | 00:00¹ | 22:00 | 18:30 |
Can I watch the 2022 MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix?
MotoGP has its own on-demand streaming service, which provides live coverage of practice, qualifying, and races, as well as highlights. The MotoGP Video pass is available for 139.99 euros per year. MotoGP races are also streamed live on the official websites of some local broadcasters.
Live Broadcast: MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix (try it free)
2022 MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix Preview:
The series promoter has dubbed the last MotoGP round of the 2022 season “The Decider.” The reason for the billing is straightforward: Pecco Bagnaia arrives in Valencia with a commanding lead over Fabio Quartararo, but the championship is still up for grabs.
At least in principle. Bagnaia leads Quartararo by 23 points and has seven victories to Quartararo’s three. In practice, this means Bagnaia must finish 14th or above to be certain of the championship. Even more, encouraging for the Ducati Lenovo rider is the fact that Quartararo must win the race in order to successfully defend his 2021 title.
What are the chances that both of those occurrences will occur? Let us look at each occurrence in turn. First, there’s a chance Pecco Bagnaia will finish 15th or below in Valencia. The Italian’s first two seasons in MotoGP were not very successful. After being ruled out of the race in 2019 after knocking himself out and breaking his wrist in 2019, he crashed in the first Valencia race in 2020 and finished 11th in the second race a week later.
However, all changed in 2021. Bagnaia qualified second and won the final race of last season, beating out two other Ducatis carrying Jorge Martin and Jack Miller. With his win, he solidified his second-place finish in the championship and reaffirmed his status as one of the title favorites for 2022.
According to Bagnaia’s current form, Valencia 2022 will be more like 2021 than 2020 or 2019. He has turned his season around since the incident at the Sachsenring. The collision in Germany was his fourth of the season (albeit the Turn 1 incident in Barcelona was Takaaki Nakagami’s fault), and it forced him to ponder what he was doing wrong.
Bagnaia’s results have been remarkable since then. Five victories, two seconds, and two-thirds from nine races, totaling 177 points out of a possible 225. He has only made one error, falling out of tenth place behind Fabio Quartararo at Motegi, a replay of a mistake he made earlier in the year.
Read More: World Rugby Sevens Series 2022 Date, Time, Schedule & more
Making a similar error is Bagnaia’s best chance of finishing outside the top 14, or even on the podium. But even that is a remote possibility. Bagnaia crashed at Motegi while still trailing Quartararo in the championship by 10 points, and after a horrible weekend at Motegi. He arrives in Valencia with a comfortable lead and little pressure to accomplish anything beyond finishing the race.
However, Bagnaia’s finishing place is arguably the least essential factor in the championship equation. Where Pecco Bagnaia finishes is only important if Fabio Quartararo wins the race in Valencia, and this is where things become tricky.
The Frenchman had a mixed record in Valencia. In 2019, he had a tremendous race, starting from pole and finishing second to Marc Marquez in the latter’s best season ever. His races in 2020 were problematic, as he crashed out of both Valencia races before rejoining the first to finish fourteenth. Last year, he came from eighth on the grid to finish fifth, barely behind Joan Mir on the Suzuki and 5 seconds behind Bagnaia’s Ducati 1-2-3.
With so many long curves and changes of direction at Valencia, Yamaha has a lot of opportunities to make up ground. However, the acceleration out of the sluggish last curve and onto the long front straight severely punishes the Yamaha. Especially this Yamaha, the terribly underpowered 2022 M1, with an engine that has remained essentially unaltered since 2020.
The recent form does not bode well for Quartararo. The Frenchman’s season mirrors that of Pecco Bagnaia. He had a solid start, but the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring proved to be a tipping point.
Since then, Quartararo has crashed out three races (once on his own and once as a result of running into the back of Marc Marquez), finished out of the points in Thailand after his team miscalculated the front tire pressure, and only been on the podium twice. Bagnaia has outscored him by 114 points in nine races.
The level of competition Quartararo will encounter in Valencia, and the wall of bikes he will have to past to reach anywhere near the podium, let alone victory, will be his biggest obstacle. The other bikes and riders, particularly the Ducatis, have all come up to and frequently exceeded Quartararo on the Yamaha.
At Sepang, Enea Bastianini. In the second half of the season, the Gresini Ducati rider has routinely beaten Quartararo.
See the last eight races to get a feel of the magnitude of the struggle Quartararo confronts. Pecco Bagnaia has finished ahead of the Frenchman seven times out of eight, Enea Bastianini has finished ahead six times, and Jorge Martin has finished ahead five times out of eight.
In other words, three of the current top ten riders in the championship have a better than 50% chance of beating Quartararo to the finish line in the eight events in the second half of the season.
Not only that, but In addition, four of the top 10 riders have finished ahead of him in half of the events since the summer break. Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, and Alex Rins all had a 50% chance of finishing ahead of Quartararo and a 50% chance of finishing behind him.
At Le Mans, Joan Mir leads Aleix Espargaro and Fabio Quartararo. In the second half of 2022, Espargaro has typically finished second to the Frenchman.
He has only been able to consistently beat two riders in the top 10 on the racing course. Aleix Espargaro and Johann Zarco have only finished ahead of Quartararo in races where he wrecked out or in Thailand. But Espargaro has a podium in Aragon, and Zarco had a podium chance in Thailand but chose to stay behind Pecco Bagnaia.
As if that wasn’t enough of a task for Quartararo, Marc Marquez is regaining his form as he recovers from his fourth and, for the time being, last operation on his right arm. Marquez finished second at Phillip Island, just a few seconds behind winner Alex Rins.
Valencia is a left-hand track where Marquez has an excellent track record. He has two victories, two seconds, and two thirds in seven MotoGP races there, and has only crashed out once, amid the torrential downpour that caused the organizers to pause and restart the race in 2018. Though the 2022 Honda RC213V is still a work in progress, with issues with rear grip and braking, Marquez will be a strong opponent on the track.
To return to where we began, Valencia is properly known as “The Decider.” Pecco Bagnaia does not yet hold the title, while Fabio Quartararo is still in contention. However, the odds are stacked against Quartararo; he must not only win the race, but Bagnaia must also fail.
Fabio Quartararo will compete in Sepang 2022. This year, the Frenchman has extracted the most from his Yamaha than any other rider.
Fabio Quartararo will have a difficult time winning. Despite his track speed, he is hampered by the Yamaha M1 at this point in the season. And he has a swarm of competitors, with six, seven, or eight riders capable of finishing ahead of him in Valencia.
Of course, this does not imply that Quartararo will give up. The chances are not nil, and riders never give up until the last checkered flag falls and victory is no longer feasible. You keep going as long as there’s a chance.
But, contrary to popular belief, this is not 2006. Then, after trailing Nicky Hayden all season, Valentino Rossi arrived in Valencia leading by 8 points. A terrible start and then a dumb crash robbed Rossi the championship at a track that was never Rossi’s favorite, with Hayden winning by 5 points.
This is more akin to 2017. Then Andrea Dovizioso came in Valencia, 21 points behind Marc Marquez. It was a track where Marquez started as the favorite, and where the Ducati GP17 – a considerably improved version of the previous model, but a lot less agile bike than the current GP22 – was always going to struggle. Though Marquez saved the championship with a spectacular front-end skid into Turn 1 with seven laps to go, Dovizioso was never in a position to fight for the win, crashing out right behind his teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
The championship does not end until the last checkered flag falls. Fabio Quartararo will travel to Valencia determined to defend the crown he earned the previous year. But it’s not entirely in his hands, and he’ll need a miracle for everything to fall into place for him to win. And miracles are extremely unusual at this level of motorcycle racing.
