It was a historic day in Valencia on Sunday, and not just for the fact we crowned a first-time premier class Champion. 15 years on since Ducati’s last win, and 13 years since an Italian claimed glory, Francesco Bagnaia brought an end to both droughts following a sensational 91-point turnaround to become the 2022 MotoGP™ World Champion.

Flashback to 15 years ago, and Ducati were still celebrating their maiden Riders’ Championship delivered by Casey Stoner in 2007. Few would have thought it would have taken another decade and a half before the Borgo Panigale factory celebrated again

Stoner was unable to back up his initial success in his remaining years with Ducati, having to wait until his Honda switch in 2011 before he would be once again crowned Champion. To offset the loss of the Australian, the Bologna bullets secured the services of a certain Valentino Rossi, a nine-time World Champion.

It seemed a match made in heaven. An Italian superstar with an Italian bike. Not since the legendary Giacomo Agostini and MV Agusta in 1972 had such a combination taken World Championship honours, but if there was one to emulate that feat, it was Rossi and Ducati… or so it seemed.

Moving from the comforts of his Yamaha to the Desmosedici proved a taxing challenge. So demanding, that Rossi went an entire season without a win for the first time since his Championship debut, with a solitary podium his only consolation.

The hard work continued through the following year, but his and Ducati’s misfortunes continued, with just two podiums to his name in 2012. By the end of year, it was chalked down as a failed experiment, and Rossi returned to Yamaha and title battles from the following year.

Tough years lay ahead for Ducati with likes of Nicky Hayden and Cal Crutchlow unable to bring them to the top step, and it wasn’t until 2016 that one of their riders took the chequered flag first, with Andrea Iannone taking victory at the Austrian GP. It was a first Ducati win since Stoner’s final season back in 2010.

While they went on a barren run, a star had been developing within their ranks. Andrea Dovizioso joined Ducati in 2013, and he took his first win at a rainy Malaysian GP in 2016. That was just the beginning as the next season, he took six race wins as he pushed Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) all the way to the season finale. Dovi even outshone star recruit and five-time World Champion Jorge Lorenzo that season as he claimed second in the Championship.

2018 saw Dovizioso claim four more victories as he once again finished runner-up to Marquez, while 2019 continued in the same vein as the Italian claimed a third consecutive runner-up medal as the entire grid were outclassed by Marquez once again, with the Repsol Honda rider tallying up a preposterous points total.

Despite his best efforts, Dovizioso just kept falling short, but he achieved what others failed and became a consistent Championship threat while developing the Desmosedici into a formidable weapon.

In 2020, Dovi bid farewell, as did his teammate Danilo Petrucci, and Ducati gambled on youth, promoting Pramac pair and great friends Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller to the factory team. They were betting big on Pecco too, having previously handed him a factory bike debut at the end of season 2018 Test.

Having been under the tutelage of Rossi, hopes were high that Bagnaia could live up to the hopes that were set upon his mentor ten years previously. And things got off to a pretty good start with an opening night podium at the Qatar GP.  More podiums followed before that victory breakthrough finally came at a thrilling Aragon GP, where he held his nerve against a relentless Marc Marquez.

After a myriad of near misses, that victory broke the dam wall and three victories in five followed to close out the season. That form had him primed as a main contender in 2022, but struggles ensued at the beginning of the season. After five podium-less races, Bagnaia upset the odds to take the win in Jerez. Then it was a case of win it or bin it, with his next three races seeing record DNF-P1-DNF. At this stage, he was 91 points off the pace, and seemingly out of contention, but cue the most remarkable title turnaround we’ve ever seen in the sport.

Four consecutive victories came before a second place in Aragon. Within striking distance of Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™), back-to-back podiums in Thailand and Australia saw him assume command of the Championship race while a Malaysian GP victory put him on the brink.

15 years later, Bagnaia sealed the deal and finally brought the Riders’ Championship back to Ducati. 13 years on from his mentor Valentino Rossi’s last title, an Italian is once again the toast of the MotoGP™ paddock. Judging by the celebrations seen at the circuit, we have no doubt the town was painted red as they partied hard into the night.

Congratualtions Pecco. Congratulations Ducati. We can’t wait to see what you bring next year.

It’s been a long time coming, but Ducati finally have their second MotoGP™ World Championship. The efforts of the irrepressible Francesco Bagnaia in 2022 have delivered a first title in 15 years to the Borgo Panigale factory, and a second world title to the Italian rider.

It is undoubtedly Pecco’s crowning achievement in the sport, but there have been others, and below we take a look at the top five moments from his career to date!

Having been on the World Championship stage for the previous three seasons, 2016 saw Bagnaia mature into a fine rider with Moto3™ title credentials. He claimed six podiums during that campaign, two of which were wins when riding with the Aspar team. That first-ever win came at Assen, where he rode his Mahindra machinery to the top step.

However, it was his second victory, which fittingly came in Malaysia, that saw him rewarded with a chance to make his debut on MotoGP™ machinery at the end-of-season Valencia Test on a Ducati; an opportunity he grabbed with both hands.

Roll the clock back to four years ago, and Pecco was celebrating becoming the Moto2™ World Champion at Sepang. Riding with the VR46 Racing Team, a third place finish was enough to see him over the line against Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) as he cracked 300 points.

In total, he recorded eight wins and four further podiums on his way to Championship glory.

Having moved to the premier class in 2019, Bagnaia experienced all the ups and downs on the learning curve. A first podium came in 2020 at Misano, before a week later he crashed out of a comfortable lead at the same circuit. After even more near misses, that breakthrough win finally came in 2021, and how!

In what was an instant classic, Pecco held his nerve to withstand a late onslaught from Marc Marquez on the final laps, denying the Repsol Honda rider on seven different occasions to take his first-ever MotoGP™ victory. That win had a domino effect, as the Italian took three more wins and a podium in the closing five races to launch a late title charge.

Once Bagnaia gets a run of form, he can be nigh on unstoppable. Having ironed out the inconsistencies that plagued the first half of the campaign, the number 63 recovered from back-to-back crashes in Catalunya and Germany by going on a four-race winning streak, the first time a Ducati rider has ever done so. Consecutive victories at Assen, Silverstone, the Red Bull Ring and Misano gave him the platform to launch his extraordinary 91-point title comeback.

Without a doubt, the highlight of his career has come this weekend in Valencia. The Italian’s ninth place, together with a fourth for Fabio Quartararo, has left him with a 17-point lead at the end of the season. This means that Francesco Bagnaia has delivered the first Riders’ Championship to Ducati since 2007, and becomes the first Italian Champion since a certain Valentino Rossi in 2009.

Seven victories and three other podiums have helped Bagnaia reach the holy grail, and it is very much deserved. Congratulations Pecco!

The Ducati Lenovo Team’s Francesco Bagnaia has won the 2022 MotoGP™ World Championship by finishing ninth in the final race of the season at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana – a first such title for the man mentored by Valentino Rossi. Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo started the Grand Prix needing nothing less than victory to have any hope of a second straight crown but finished a fighting fourth in a contest won by Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins – one more victory for the Hamamatsu manufacturer. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) rounded out the podium after 27 laps around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Rins qualified on the middle of Row 2 but made a brilliant start and led the field to the first corner, ahead of pole-sitter Martin and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team). Quartararo took a wide berth at the Turn 2 braking zone, emerging behind Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and in a battle for fifth with none other than Bagnaia. When Marquez attacked Miller for third on the opening lap, Quartararo squeezed his Yamaha down the inside of the Australian’s Ducati at Turn 8 as well, and he was up to fourth.

Miller hit back at the start of Lap 2, forcing Quartararo to pick up his YZR-M1 at Turn 2 with a pass which incentivised Bagnaia to also have a look. The title contenders made contact which pulled a wing off the factory-entered Ducati, but Bagnaia was ahead of his key rival. It stayed that way until Lap 4, when Quartararo was down his inside at Turn 6 and back into fifth position – but facing a task to catch the top four.

In said top four, Miller moved back into the podium positions when he passed Marquez on Lap 6 at Turn 1, before the eight-time World Champion crashed out altogether, four laps later at Turn 8. In the meantime, Quartararo had shaken Bagnaia, who, due to some combination of caution and the damage from his contact with ‘El Diablo’, was on the slide. He had already been overtaken for sixth by Brad Binder when he gave Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) an easy position on Lap 13 at Turn 14.

Up the road, Rins was trying to break away but the rest of the top five was compressing, which was both good and bad news for Quartararo given he was running fourth with a KTM ridden by Binder catching up. The Frenchman braked as deep as he dared at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 18 to try and keep the South African behind him, but ran wide and was picked off by Binder at Turn 2.

Meanwhile, Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was also through on Bagnaia, and soon Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) was as well. Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) then caught up to his future teammate and while he might have had thoughts about the Ducati hierarchy watching on in the garage, Pecco left a humongous gap at Turn 2 on Lap 22 to give ninth position to ‘La Bestia’ and save himself any possible trouble.

It was more dramatic in the battle for the podium places, with Binder going past his own future teammate, Miller, on Lap 23 at Turn 2, then setting after Martin. Halfway around the lap at Turn 11, Miller’s last race with Ducati came to a premature end when he crashed out, handing over fourth spot to Quartararo again.

Rins had not quite been able to drop the field like he might have hoped, but was still nine tenths of a second to the good when Binder overtook Martin for second place at Turn 4 on the penultimate lap. They would take the chequered flag 0.396 seconds apart as Rins delivered the final win for Suzuki in its current stint in MotoGP™, with Martin getting home just over a second from victory, and Quartararo nine tenths further back.

Oliveira would pass Mir for fifth, with the 2020 World Champion therefore classified sixth, ahead of Marini and Bastianini. Bagnaia found himself under pressure from Quartararo’s Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™ teammate Franco Morbidelli in the final laps but beat the Italian to ninth position. Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) finished 11th, ahead of Tech3 KTM Factory Racing duo Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner, then Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in 14th and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) in the last points-paying position. Joining Miller on the list of retirements was Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) after a crash on Lap 16, plus both the Aprilia Racing entries of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales, both the Repsol Honda Team entries of Marquez and Pol Espargaro, and also Darryn Binder (WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP™ Team).

Bagnaia can now celebrate his first MotoGP™ Championship crown, and Ducati’s first riders’ title in 15 long years, but before the off-season, we have the Valencia Test back at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Tuesday.

MotoGP™ Race Top 10

1. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar)
2. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) + 0.396
3. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) + 1.059
4. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) + 1.911
5. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) + 7.122
6. Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) + 7.735
7. Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) + 8.524
8. Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) + 12.038
9. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) + 14.441
10. Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) + 14.676