Racing for Valencia – the motto for the season finale. And they were all RACING for Valencia, like their lives depended on it.
Kudos to everyone involved who, by some organisational voodoo, managed to arrange everything on such short notice in order for us to have a season Grand Finale in Barcelona after the terrifying destruction that hit Valencia.
Valencia, we’re all thinking of you, and we’ll see you again next year!
Rossi started the race with a Double Long Lapper to his name, courtesy of his Dawdler-shenanigans early this weekend.
Alonso rolled on to the grid with a few brush-strokes of golden paint across his helmet, and a touch of gold Sellotape on his bike.
It was the perfect season-ender of a Lightweight race! So much paint was swapped between the front seventeen that, by half distance, many were getting a feel for their 2025 team colours.
Poor Nepa’s last race of 2024 ended prematurely, when he was (allegedly) helped off the track and into the dust at Turn Four on the opening lap. He managed to nurse his injured motorcycle back to the garage, whereafter we can only assume he disappeared to find the nearest beer tent.
It was later determined that it was Lunetta who’d assisted him in his retirement, and thus Lunetta was slapped with a Long Lap Penalty… no, wait, make that a Double.
By the end of Lap Six, Rossi slunk into pit lane to join Nepa.
A quick summary of Alonso’s race:
The young record-breaker first took the lead properly by Lap Fourteen, only to be pinballed back to fifth two laps later.
Did any of this phase the young star? We’d wager a ‘not even at all’, since he was back in front by the next lap.
At least two of the Juniors failed to keep their colouring within the lines, and had to do a stint at the Long Lap Loop: these were stand-in rider Uriarte, and Zurutuza.
Amidst the epic battles, Fernández had to do a vertical split going towards Turn Two for the final time, forcing him to take a little detour in order to find the track again.
Did he lose that essential one second while off-track? Most were in agreement that he hadn’t, but the final judgement was passed post-race.
No, no he didn’t; this meant Fernández was slapped across the face with a three-second penalty, dropping him off the podium and into the depths of the pack behind.
Win number seven in a row went to Alonso, which was also his fourteenth victory of the season, breaking the record for most wins in one season, regardless of in which class.
It’s true what they said: he isn’t a legend-in-the-making, he is already a bloody legend!
Not forgetting that the podium has three steps: Holgado snatched up second, while Piqueras was promoted up into third, courtesy of his teammate’s last-lap detour-penalty.
Another rider who was slapped with the Penalty-wand post-race, was Muñoz for punting Furusato wide on the final lap. He had to concede one position.
During the Cooldown Lap, lots of shenanigans occurred. First, we were treated to a multi-bike smokefest that let off so much smoke. If the track had a smoke alarm, it’d be frantically screaming for the fire brigade.
Alonso stopped next to the track in order to receive his fluffy Grad cap, along with a Certificate of Achievement for Moto3.
‘Much to the fans’ delight, he followed this up by climbing the fence.
While the rest celebrated, Fernández rode his bike straight into the back of his pit box, where he jumped off and stomped away, a flashing dark cloud frantically trying to keep up…
Moto2:
Aldeguer, upon his return, would have to serve one Long Lap Penalty for his antics back in the Thai GP.
Team MT Helmets went out there this Sunday intent on blinding everyone around them – not only did our new Moto2 Champ, Ogura, get a golden makeover, but so did his teammate, García. There was enough gold on those two motorcycles to buy a small island.
There was nearly as much on Ai’s helmet.
It was pretty epic.
Valencian local, Canet showed up with a special helmet of his own in support of his homeland. Much sparkly, very nice.
Lap One was utter chaos. First, Dixon-the-Sinussy almost highsided while testing out the Long Lap Loop.
Then, at Turn Five, Dixon came into hefty contact with López, sending Dixon on an off-track trajectory. Feeling a little lonely on his unplanned trip, Dixon grabbed Navarro along the way. It appeared that he also nabbed García – the new-new one; what’s his name again? Roberto? – though this was less covered.
Things didn’t improve on the second lap, when Van den Goorbergh found himself pinched by a KTM-vice on the approach into Turn One; this resulted in Zonta and his bike barrelling off into the gravel, adding Vietti to their party as they went. The whirlwind of bike bits and rider limbs attempted to suck Öncü in as well, but luckily for him it failed.
Foggia cut Turn Two, earning himself a one-time pass into the Long Lap Loop.
Two riders were caught playing on the green stuff, and both were told to run through the Long Lap Loop as punishment. However, neither of these scoundrels managed to do it right, and thus both of them were scolded and told that now they had to do it twice. Incidentally, they were Manzi and Öncü.
Canet had initially run off with the lead, but by around the eighteenth lap his comfy lead shrunk like your favourite sweater in a hot wash.
After having to go a little defensive for the last few laps, Canet managed to keep González at bay, winning his fourth race of the season. González was pretty content with second, but Moreira was totally chuffed with third place – his maiden Moto2 podium, a fabulous way to end his rookie year.
Not only did Moreira get his first taste of Moto2 podium Prosecco, but he also clinched the Moto2 Rookie of the Year title.
Well done, kid!
One more fun fact regarding Moreira’s podium finish: he was the first Brazilian on the podium since Adu Celso-Santos in 1973.
Shoutout to González for being the only rider in Moto2 to finish every single race this year.
The Middleweight Cooldown Lap involved yet more smoke. Not that we’re complaining, or anything.
Darryn managed to climb his way up to an eventual sixteenth across the line. You’re doing fine, Daz; now to improve Qualifying performance in 2025.
MotoGP:
Saturday Sprint Race:
We’re in love with Espargaró’s pearlescent rose pink ‘Adios’ helmet – likely one of the best-looking special lids seen this year. Only Aleix could make a pink helmet not look girly as hell.
The Sprint had barely gotten underway when chaos erupted on-track, somehow not resulting in chaos off-track.
In the melee Acosta’s GasGas had its face ripped off entirely by Márquez’s (Marc) Ducati while navigating Turn Three.
He managed to nurse his new Street Fighter back to the pits, its front fairing lost to Turn Three, forever…
Once the mayhem had settled down a bit, Bagnaia pulled off at the front, stretching his lead to over a second by the fifth lap, and maintaining it for the rest of the race.
Behind him there raged a race-long war for second and third.
Bagnaia comfortably claimed the win, while his teammate Bastianini swooped past Martín in order to take second, leaving Jorge with a third place.
With all the focus on the front of the race, Brad’s steady climb up into ninth mostly happened unnoticed. We noticed, Brad.
Good job.
During the Cooldown Lap, Aleix appeared on a (vintage, by now) 125cc two-stroke – the first motorcycle he rode when he joined the MotoGP circus. That was nostalgia-inducing. Awww.
Main Race:
As the riders lined up for the final race of 2024, the crowning of the MotoGP Champion was strung out to the very last moment.
Aleix had swapped out his snazzy pearl-pink helmet for a white one with a glaring pink ‘41’ printed on top, for his final MotoGP race as a full-time rider.
Meanwhile, Bastianini had slapped a rabid Pikachu on his helmet. How… disturbingly adorable.
Now, we’ll be honest here – in comparison to the first two races of this Sunday, the main event was pretty mellow. Had it not been for the immense tension linked to the Championship finale, it wouldn’t have been as nerve-wracking to watch.
Not that we’re saying there wasn’t any action – because by gum, there was…
We lost the Timing Tower on Lap Three. It returned a little while later, pretending to never have left at all.
Mir crashed on Lap Seven. No attention was given.
A Turn Two, a shortcut earned Rins a Long Lap Penalty, which he ignored, resulting in a second one being added to the tally.
The rest of the race was basically Bagnaia running away at the front, with Márquez – Senior – in hot pursuit, while Martín focused on staying upright in third until the flag was waved.
Some excellent tussles occurred further down the line, some of which we were allowed to watch, while others were deemed less essential to air directly.
Bagnaia won the final race with ease, while Marc Márquez took second in similar fashion. Behind them, Martín crossed the line in third, leaving a wet trail as he went.
No, this was not coming from his Ducati; it was streaming from beneath his helmet.
Binder had a stellar race, fighting his way up into sixth, and thus clenching fifth in the Championship. Fantastic job Brad!
Not to be entirely outdone by the ‘lesser’ classes, the Big Boys made lots of smoke of their own during their Cooldown Lap.
Queue a slew of Martín celebration-information!
As had become customary, Martín smashed the screen of his Ducati to indicate how happy he was. And probably to draw attention away from his drenched-in-tears self.
Martín was not only World Champion for the first time in MotoGP, but he is also the first independent rider in the modern MotoGP-era to earn that title.
Upon his arrival at the Champion-celebrations, Martín first yelled out what lungs he had left, before jogging and, for the last few metres, rolling towards a large, black cubicle marked for the Martinator, the familiar phrase ‘Hasta la vista’ blasted across an image of him with a partial Terminator face on the side.
While we waited for Martín to emerge, we panned over to the Aprilia team, who were being smoked to perfection by Aleix in an impressively smoky farewell-burnout.
Once we were done checking on Aleix, and had ensured that the other two podium-finishers were indeed already in Parc Fermé, we returned to the exciting activity of watching a black box, expecting something exciting to happen.
It took some time, but eventually smoke began leaking from within the cubicle, followed by Martinator kicking down a panel, kitted out in Terminator-style-print leathers and a half-machine face. He took aim with his right finger-gun, and shot the ‘glass’ cube in front of him, which exploded not at all out of sync with his shot…
Inside the cube, there was a can of Red Bull and a stylish pale-yet-brilliant gold helmet with tons of fine detail. Jorge, now full human-faced again, walked up, downed the can of Red Bull, and yanked the helmet from its post.
It was a really well-executed Champion’s helmet, no lies.
While Martín was playing killer-robots, his bike had grown a holographic gold number one on its nose. Martín saddled up, did a burnout as he left, then again did a burnout upon entering Parc Fermé.
Just to add that final dash of awkwardness to the day, Martín dropped down between the bikes in order to do the worm.
‘…last laps… couldn’t even ride… started crying a bit…’ – Martín, Parc Fermé interview.
When we finally got ‘round to the podium, Martín made out with his golden helmet so intensely, his girlfriend was becoming jealous. He totally wore that helmet to bed after the celebrations.
On the podium, Martín downed nearly an entire bottle of Prosecco after being drenched from all sides in even more Prosecco. Then, when time came for the Champion celebration, he dropped the second bottle, which smashed most spectacularly in front of the podium – much to the chagrin of the Very Serious About My Job Guy.
Another bottle was whipped out much too quickly, this time left on the floor and not on the podium step. Just in case.
Martín managed to finesse it open, and sprayed the crowd without shattering the second bottle.
And just like that, the season came to an end.
We know Martin would have been up all Sunday night, celebrating, and a lot of others would be joining in on the festivities. As for us, we’ll pack in our MotoGP-quips for now, saving them up for what should be an epic 2025 season.
Adios!
~ Karr
