What happened in MotoGP’s previous title deciders

Since the modern four-stroke era of MotoGP was introduced in 2022, four championship battles have been fought to the wire.

For the first time since 2017, this year’s championship fight has been kept alive through to the Valencia decider, with Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo squaring up against each other for glory.

The scales are weighted in Bagnaia’s favour, as the Ducati rider holds a 23-point lead having amassed seven wins in 2022.

Reigning world champion Quartararo must win the grand prix at Ricardo Tormo if he is to have any hope of winning the championship, with Bagnaia needing to finish at least 14th to secure Ducati’s first title in 15 years.

PLUS: Why the 2023 MotoGP title battle has already begun

Ahead of this weekend’s decider in Valencia, Autosport looks back over MotoGP’s four previous championship finales.

During Marquez's era of MotoGP dominance, Dovizioso pushed him closest in 2017

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

2017 – Marquez vs Dovizioso

Much like in 2022, the 2017 title decider in Valencia saw a Ducati rider try to end the Italian marque’s championship drought.

Despite Ducati signing three-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo to do that job – and for a considerable sum of money – it was Dovizioso who ultimately emerged as its title hopeful.

The Italian won six times across the 2017 season, and scored a crucial victory at the Malaysian GP to keep his title hopes alive against Marc Marquez through to the final round showdown in Valencia.

Honda rider Marquez led Dovizioso by 21 points coming to Valencia, with Dovizioso needing to win the race to have any hope of taking the title away from the reigning champion.

The race, ultimately, did not go Dovizioso’s way. Qualifying down in ninth, Dovizioso would get stuck behind team-mate Lorenzo in the early stages of the race, with Ducati issuing the latter with a team order to move out of the way.

Lorenzo did not obey this, but it would prove immaterial anyway as Dovizioso would crash out on lap 25 of 30 while running in fourth.

Marquez almost came to blows when leading at the start of lap 23, as the Honda rider lost the front-end on the way into Turn 1 – though spectacularly stayed on his bike to finish third and win a fourth premier class title.

Potentially the biggest MotoGP title decider in the modern era was tinged with controversy

Photo by: Bridgestone Corporation

2015 – Lorenzo vs Rossi

The 2015 Valencia title decider was arguably MotoGP’s most intense and venomous. The weekend was shrouded in controversy after the events of the Malaysian GP two weeks prior.

Pre-weekend at Sepang, Valentino Rossi – who led the championship by seven points coming into Valencia round – accused Marc Marquez of deliberately trying to sabotage the Italian’s title hopes by conspiring to work with Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo at the prior Australian GP.

It was an accusation Marquez brushed off, but the Honda rider battled with Rossi incredibly hard over third in the early stages of the race.

This would lead to the infamous ‘Sepang clash’, when Rossi and Marquez tangled – the latter crashing while the former went on to finish third as Lorenzo won the race.

Rossi was handed a back-of-the-grid start for the Valencia finale, which sent his fanbase into a frenzy of accusations of Spanish bias on Dorna Sports’ part on the internet. Honda threatened to reveal data that proved Rossi kicked Marquez, while in Valencia all riders were required for a meeting in which they were told to be on their best behaviour.

Rossi would fight his way from last to fourth, but could do nothing to stop Lorenzo from winning the race and his third and final premier class championship.

To this day, Rossi believes he was cheated out of an eighth MotoGP title and the rift between himself and Marquez exists still – even if it has calmed over time since 2015.

Marquez and Lorenzo put on a titanic title battle in 2013

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

2013 – Lorenzo vs Marquez

A dramatic flyaway phase of the 2013 championship set up a title-decider in Valencia between then-rookie Marc Marquez and double champion Jorge Lorenzo.

While in touching distance of an historic maiden title in his rookie season, Marquez was disqualified from a chaotic Australian GP. Tyre wear problems led to a mandatory pitstop being enforced for the shortened Phillip Island race, with riders having to change bikes no later than the end of lap 10.

Marquez’s Honda team miscalculated this, and he went around for another tour before pitting. He would soon be black-flagged for this, with Lorenzo going on to win the race. A second-successive victory at the following Japanese GP meant Lorenzo was just 13 points adrift of Marquez heading into the final round.

Despite his best efforts, Lorenzo winning the race, it wasn’t enough to stop Marquez from becoming the youngest ever world champion at the end of his maiden season after the Honda ride took the chequered flag in third.

Hayden's triumph remains the only final-round decider in which the rider trailing going into the final round came out on top

Photo by: Repsol Media

2006 – Rossi vs Hayden

Arguably the most memorable final-round showdown of the modern era, the 2006 championship looked like it was heading the way of Valentino Rossi.

A dramatic Portuguese GP at Estoril the round before saw Dani Pedrosa crash into Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden, plunging the American’s hopes of winning the championship into major doubt.

Rossi would finish the Estoril race second, having been narrowly beaten on a run to the line by Gresini Honda’s Toni Elias – a result that would ultimately sway the title back towards Hayden.

Yamaha’s Rossi – by now a five-time world champion in MotoGP – led Hayden by eight points coming to Valencia.

By the end of lap four, Hayden was up to second while Rossi was seventh, with the Yamaha rider simply needing to finish in fourth if Hayden didn’t advance any further. But on lap five of 30, Rossi sensationally crashed out, with Hayden taking the chequered flag in third to become world champion.

The scenes of Hayden’s emotional celebrations are some of MotoGP’s most iconic images, and have become more pertinent in recent years following the American’s death in a cycling accident back in 2017.