Fabio Quartararo fought like a lion throughout Sunday afternoon’s 27-lap encounter at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as he secured runner-up spot in the 2022 MotoGP World Championship with a fine fourth in Valencia.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Fabio Quartararo gave it his all in the final MotoGP race of the year, ultimately relinquishing his championship crown after securing a fourth-place finish in Valencia.
After a positive weekend for the Frenchmen, Quartararo launched from the head of the second row but dropped a few positions in the opening corners. Despite the small setback, the 23-year-old was up for the fight, immediately carving his way back to fourth by the end of the opening lap.
Falling behind Jack Miller at the start of the second lap, contact between the Yamaha rider and his championship rival Francesco Bagnaia at turn two ignited a fiery duel as the duo went head-to-head for fifth position. Pushing his YZR-M1 Yamaha to the limit, he seized fifth place with a brave pass at turn eight on lap four and began his charge towards the leading quartet.
Reducing the gap lap-by-lap, the rider from Nice was running in fourth after an earlier crash for a rival and found himself within striking distance of the riders ahead with ten laps to go but had pressure from behind. Falling behind Brad Binder, he continued to give it his all and was promoted a position when Miller crashed out, but it wasn’t enough to make any further progress resulting in a fourth-place finish in Valencia, and second in the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team-mate Franco Morbidelli enjoyed a stronger Sunday afternoon in Valencia. The Italian made a promising start to the Valencian Grand Prix and was running inside the top 12 by half-race distance. Crashes for riders ahead promoted the former Moto2 champion to 10th and was unable to work his way passed Bagnaia on the final lap, rounding out his season in the top ten.
It was a farewell to forget for the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP team who saw both riders crash out of contention. Cal Crutchlow was able to remount his CryptoDATA-coloured YZR-M1 and saw the chequered flag in 16th. Darryn Binder sadly crashed out of his final MotoGP race but was uninjured.
After 20 nail-biting MotoGP races, Fabio Quartararo secured a superb second in the 2022 MotoGP World Championship with Yamaha also claiming the runner-up position in the constructor’s championship. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP finished fifth in the teams’ standings with the RNF MotoGP Team in 11th.
The MotoGP paddock will return to action on Tuesday 8th November for the first taste of 2023 action with the official post-season test in Valencia.
Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 4th
“It was a tough race, especially for the left side of the tyre, but I gave my 100%. It was not enough to fight for the podium or the victory. It was hotter today than it was the previous days, and the left side of my front tyre went completely soft. That was the point where I lost the race. I’m a bit disappointed, but congratulations to Pecco for winning the title. Now I just can’t wait to try our new bike. But first we have to celebrate tonight. Then at Tuesday we have that very important test for 2023, and of course I’m really motivated because it concerns our future bike.”
Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 10th
“It was a good race. It was a good recovery! A lot of fighting and a lot of overtakes. I made a good comeback after I lost too much ground at the beginning. This is the moment to reflect on the season. I have to say ’Thanks‘ to my crew and my team, because they all hung on tight. When I was riding and knew it was difficult to extract potential from the bike, they stayed close to me, they always supported me. They always believe in me, and I always believe in them. They are working and kept on working to fix the flaws of the bike. We are all in this together. I‘m pleased to now be able to extract speed from the bike and be able to go from being a smooth rider to an aggressive rider. I‘m pleased about that and the atmosphere in the team. It was a tough season but with a happy ending.”
Cal Crutchlow – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, 16th
“I’m happy with what we have done in the last six races, I felt good, I felt a lot better than I thought I would feel. This weekend was difficult but I honestly believed I would have had a good result, the problem was I felt that the tyre pressure at the start of the race, this was evidently why I crashed because of the massive rise in pressure, it was way over when I crashed. And then when I rode round alone it was in a perfect range, I had a great pace where I wanted to. I was just making sure I finished the race incase I could get a point for the team. Overall, not a bad weekend, my pace was okay, nothing really really special. We did our job for YAMAHA and for the RNF MotoGP Team and now I can go home happy.”
Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, NC
“I’m really upset and disappointed to finish my last Grand Prix weekend the way this one went. It has been a really really tough weekend for me, I’ve struggled all weekend with feelings on the bike and unfortunately I’ve had many crashes this weekend. In the race I just started and I was at the back of the pack and I was just trying to figure things out for myself and build it up lap by lap, because I wasn’t really able to push and didn’t have a great feeling and I had another crashed heading into Turn 2. It was probably the worst weekend of my year, but it is what is. It has been a cool year and I really enjoyed every moment of riding the MotoGP bike and I can’t thank everybody enough who was part of this year with me and thanks for the great opportunity. I had an amazing team and they supported me all the way until the end and I am grateful to them and to everyone who supported me. I am now looking forward to my new adventure.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Team Director
“It‘s been a really long season. We had a lot of ups and downs and we were contenders in the title challenge until the last race, but it‘s also tough to accept that in the end we couldn‘t defend it. That said, the fact that we were serious title contenders all the way until the end in a year that came with obstacles for us – that in itself is a tribute to how strong our team is. We worked together, and I want to thank every single person who contributed to our 2022 racing efforts. We don‘t have any time to rest, though. On Tuesday we have the first 2023 test and we will already start planning our revanche.”
Razlan Razali – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, Founder & Team Principal
“Well that was not the final race that we expect but we can be happy and proud that we finished the season in our first year as a team. An unfortunate crash for Darryn Binder and a real effort for Cal Crutchlow to finish the race hoping for some points. It was a memorable weekend for various reasons, besides just racing for the last time for the 2022 season, we said goodbye to Darryn and thank you to Cal for substituting for Andrea Dovizioso, but we also say thank you to YAMAHA for the great years and support since 2019 and to our partners who have been with us throughout this journey. This weekend we also welcome our new investors, CryptoDATA and the team.
“While it’s the end of this season with our riders and YAMAHA, it’s a new beginning for the RNF MotoGP Team with fresh injection of capital, expertise and ideas with CryptoDATA. Something that we can really look forward to from tomorrow when we receive our new toys from Aprilia and welcoming our new riders for the 2023 season to get ready for the test on Tuesday. Again, we are happy to finish the first year and we look forward to the new season.”
2022 Valencian Grand Prix Race Results
- Alex Rins – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR
- Brad Binder – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +0.396
- Jorge Martin – Prima Pramac Racing +1.059
- Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +1.911
- Miguel Oliveira – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +7.122
- Joan Mir – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR +7.735
- Luca Marini – Mooney VR46 Racing Team +8.524
- Enea Bastianini – Gresini Racing MotoGP +12.038
- Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team +14.441
- Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +14.676
- Marco Bezzecchi – Mooney VR46 Racing Team +17.655
- Raul Fernandez – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +24.870
- Remy Gardner – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +26. 546
- Takaaki Nakagami – LCR Honda IDEMITSU +26.610
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – Gresini Racing MotoGP +31.819
- Cal Crutchlow – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team +88.870
- Alex Marquez – LCR Honda CASTROL +1 lap
- Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team +5 laps
- Maverick Viñales – Aprilia Racing +12 laps
- Johann Zarco – Prima Pramac Racing +12 laps
- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team +18 laps
- Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team +23 laps
- Pol Espargaro – Repsol Honda Team +23 laps
- Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia Racing +24 laps
2022 MotoGP World Championship Standings
- Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team 265 points
- Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 248 points
- Enea Bastianini – Gresini Racing MotoGP 219 points
- Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia Racing 212 points
- Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team 189 points
- Brad Binder – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 188 points
- Alex Rins – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 173 points
- Johann Zarco – Prima Pramac Racing 166 points
- Jorge Martin – Prima Pramac Racing 153 points
- Miguel Oliveira – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 149 points
- Maverick Viñales – Aprilia Racing 122 points
- Luca Marini – Mooney VR46 Racing Team 120 points
- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team 113 points
- Marco Bezzecchi – Mooney VR46 Racing Team 111 points
- Joan Mir – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 87 points
- Pol Espargaro – Repsol Honda Team 56 points
- Alex Marquez – LCR Honda CASTROL 50 points
- Takaaki Nakagami – LCR Honda IDEMITSU 48 points
- Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 42 points
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – Gresini Racing MotoGP 24 points
- Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 15 points
- Raul Fernandez – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 14 points
- Remy Gardner – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 13 points
- Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 12 points
- Cal Crutchlow – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 10 points
- Stefan Bradl – Repsol Honda Team 2 points
- Michele Pirro – Aruba.it Racing 0 points
- Lorenzo Savadori – Aprilia Racing 0 points
- Tetsuta Nagashima – LCR Honda IDEMITSU 0 points
- Danilo Petrucci – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 0 points
- Kazuki Watanabe – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 0 points
2022 MotoGP Constructors Championship Standings
- Ducati 448 points
- Yamaha 256 points
- Aprilia 248 points
- KTM 240 points
- Suzuki 199 points
- Honda 155 points
2022 MotoGP Team Championship Standings
- Ducati Lenovo Team 454 points
- Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 337 points
- Aprilia Racing 334 points
- Prima Pramac Racing 318 points
- Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 290 points
- Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 260 points
- Gresini Racing MotoGP 243 points
- Mooney VR46 Racing Team 231 points
- Repsol Honda Team 171 points
- LCR Honda 98 points
- WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 37 points
12. Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 27 points
