Why the 2022 MotoGP season had a bittersweet ending

MotoGP did its best to drum up hype for the 2022 season finale. But few believed the championship battle would go any other way than to Ducati and Francesco Bagnaia. That didn’t stop the Circuit Ricardo Tormo being enveloped in a bundle of nerves and anticipation half an hour before lights out.

Outgoing world champion Fabio Quartararo qualified four places ahead of Bagnaia and had the best race pace after practice. If he could convert that to the holeshot and get away at the front, maybe the occasion would have led to Bagnaia making yet another error this year to add to his five DNFs.

Despite the pair clashing on lap two and Bagnaia’s bike receiving wing damage, Quartararo could do no more than fourth. With victory a must and Bagnaia needing to be 15th or lower, it was all over for the Yamaha rider as his Ducati rival took the chequered flag in ninth.

When Quartararo was asked if he could have fought for victory, the Frenchman pointed to his difficulty with the front tyre in the race: “No. Unfortunately not. We made a great pace, we recovered a little bit with the front [group], but with Jack [Miller], he braked in Turn 2, we go off wide. I pushed when I have the touch with Pecco, I wanted to really push myself to the maximum.

“On that lap I was on the limit, basically all the race on the limit. But I have no regrets because I give my 100% today and when you lose the title like that at the end, you always need to find the positive, even if right now it’s 99% of negative. The 1% positive is the next four months that I need to wait for the first race, I will be even more angrier, training hard, preparing myself better and fight harder in 2023.”

It was the likely end to Quartararo’s title defence as he battled with the Yamaha’s deficiencies hard in the second part of the season while Bagnaia hit his stride.

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Bagnaia is the first rider in history to overturn such a large points deficit to win the championship - 91 at its biggest, after a fourth DNF of the year in Germany - but ultimately broke 17 points clear of Quartararo in the end.

Gracious in defeat, Quartararo knew it was a tall order to beat Bagnaia to the title in Valencia

Photo by: Dorna

For Ducati, it’s a full circle moment. While the significance of this being its first championship since Casey Stoner’s 2007 triumph is not lost, it’s the fact that Bagnaia – a product of Valentino Rossi’s VR46 academy – ended its barren run 10 years on from the marque’s nadir with the nine-time grand prix world champion that should bring it even greater joy.

Bagnaia’s Valencia race was tense, his riding rigid and nervous as he proved easy prey for the likes of Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, Luca Marini and Enea Bastianini. It was, in his words, a “nightmare” and “the worst race” of the year. But when it counted – just as he did last time out in Malaysia – he proved mentally resilient. This is something he can very much credit to the VR46 academy.

"I think this is also thanks to the academy environment. We are always together, we are always challenging each other, we are always racing. But, he stayed solid, he remained really focused and kept believing" Franco Morbidelli

“Pecco did a wonderful season,” Franco Morbidelli, a fellow VR46 academy member, said of Bagnaia’s season. “He’s a great, great rider, he’s a super correct person, he’s a super polite and gentle [person], he’s always fair. He is a champion, he has the intelligence of a champion. He deserves this title, he did a great comeback.

“He stayed solid mentally. I think this is also thanks to the academy environment. We are always together, we are always challenging each other, we are always racing. But, he stayed solid, he remained really focused and kept believing.”

Bagnaia says he only lost the faith in his title fight for “one hour after the Sachsenring race”, and from that point he went on to win four races in a row and bring his championship back into focus, before a third in the wet in Thailand as Quartararo struggled to 17th made him truly believe he could win.

During his champions’ press conference, his Ducati crew burst in to shower him in prosecco. Most of the paddock will have woken up with a heavy head on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s first pre-season test of 2023. Those at Suzuki, however, face an uncertain future as its time in MotoGP has come to an end.

It was an almost unfortunate irony that the title-deciding race, where TV direction spent more time focused on the riders in fourth and ninth than on the lead, was won by Alex Rins on Suzuki’s swansong. And arguably it was one of his best wins, as he led from start-to-finish having come from fifth on the grid.

Bagnaia is the first rider from the Rossi's VR46 academy to win the MotoGP world title

Photo by: MotoGP

Suzuki’s decision to pull the plug on its MotoGP project beyond 2022 back in May made little sense then. It looks even more foolish now. While financial reasons and changes in market trends were attributed in its decision, 2020 world champion Joan Mir made an astute observation as he – along with Rins – depart for Honda on Tuesday.

“It’s emotional to finish what is the last race for Suzuki like this,” said Mir, who was sixth in Valencia. “I think in Japan they will regret it probably. But if they took this decision, it was for a big reason. I want to thank Suzuki for what they made for myself, for me; thanks to the super team around me who have always been on top.

“I don’t know if regretting, but for me even if you look at the different aspects – maybe they want to invest in other things or something – the image that we are giving here in MotoGP, with a beautiful bike, with a beautiful team, I think no publicity campaign can give you what we are giving here. So, I don’t really understand why they took this decision. But anyway, they will have their reasons.”

Rins didn’t want to darken the day by talking much about Suzuki’s decision afterwards, the Spaniard admitting on the grid he was in tears as the end of the Japanese marque’s journey – which he has been a part of since his rookie season in 2017 – neared.

Suzuki’s departure has stung the entire MotoGP paddock, and this was seen by the rapturous reception the team’s press officers Federico Tondelli and Alberto Gomez received in the media centre on Sunday evening – both breaking down as hugs went all around.

This was a team that was still at the top of its game and capable of fighting for the world championship. And it was one that has arguably worked the best with MotoGP’s press corp. While both riders and several members of the team have jobs for 2023, a great group of people have been unfairly treated by a corporate decision that continues to defy logic.

Thus, the 2022 Valencia GP will always be a mix of emotions. Ducati’s historic second title in MotoGP should be revered given what Bagnaia had to do to get there, but it should never be forgotten that the paddock’s pluckiest marque went out on the high it deserved.

While Bagnaia clinched the 2022 MotoGP world title and made history for Ducati, the Valencia GP will likely be remembered more for Suzuki's winning swansong as Rins and Mir made sure it went out on a high

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images