2010 MotoGP Valencia Spain race results

VALENCIA, SPAIN, NOV 7 2010 - The MotoGP World Championship ended with fireworks, as always; Valencia, Spain is, after all, the fireworks capital of Spain and the season isn't complete until the smoke clears.

The fireworks were somewhat less spectacular at around 3:00 p.m. on a cloudy but bright afternoon than they would have been after dark and the fireworks on track were quite brief. Jorge Lorenzo came out the loser and shaking his head after after two incidents with Marco Simoncelli. Neither was fatal, though the second was spectacular and close to disastrous, and marked the beginning of the end for the others.

The first came when Simoncelli wouldn't make way for the charging Lorenzo on the second lap when the Italian was fourth and Lorenzo was fifth. In the final corner of that same lap, Lorenzo tried to squeeze up the inside of Simoncelli exiting the final corner onto the front straight with near race-ending results. Lorenzo touched Simoncelli, who wasn't affected, but Lorenzo nearly fell off the inside of his Fiat Yamaha, then nearly high-sided. By the time he collected himself, he was down in eighth place and 2.435 seconds behind the fleeing Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro).

Then began the hard work. Lorenzo passed Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) on the third lap and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) on the fourth. Next to fall was Simoncelli, who went without a fight on the seventh, putting Lorenzo behind Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, and Valentino Rossi.

"I was concentrated and little by little, lap by lap, I was recovering, I was making overtaking, thinking, thinking very much," Lorenzo said.

Pedrosa made a mistake on the tenth and went from second to fourth. Lorenzo took Rossi on the 12th and set out for Stoner, who was grimly hanging on while knowing his time at the front was in peril. Lorenzo made the pass for the lead on the 23rd of 30 laps and within three laps had nearly a second. The margin of victory to Stoner was 4.576 seconds and Rossi finished third in his last race for Yamaha after a stellar seven-year career.

Somewhat surprisingly, this was Lorenzo's first ever grand prix win in Valencia, one of the few current tracks-Aragon and Sachsenring are the other two—where he'd never won. By winning he set a record for points in an 18-race season. His 383 topped Rossi's mark of 373 from 2008. Lorenzo also set a record with 18 top four finishes in one season. Scoring 16 podiums in one season ties him with Rossi, who did it three times, in 2003, 2005, and 2008.

"Yes, I was proud to get this (points) record, because I was known as a crazy rider with a lot of crashes," from his early days in the 125 and 250 class. "So to demonstrate this constancy this season we are very proud.

"To be honest, in this corner when I touch with Simoncelli and I was almost crashed, when I saved the crash, I thought 'I'm eighth, I don't make the record points, no.' Fortunately, I was keeping the patience and I not only made the record points, but I won the race."

Of the top four finishers, only Lorenzo is staying put. Stoner is moving to the factory Honda team starting on Tuesday, when the final test of the 2010 season begins. Finishing on the podium was a fitting send-off for Stoner, who'd given the team their first and only MotoGP World Championship in 2007. He'd hoped to finish with a win from the pole position, but his qualifying performance had been deceiving, he admitted, and the race was never going to be easy.

"Yeah, I mean the lap times we were doing in the practice sessions and qualifying sort of covered up a lot of problems people didn't see behind the scenes," he said. "I was cautious going into the race. We knew it wasn't going to be how everybody thought it was going to be and we just tried to get the best start we could, because we knew if we were back in the pack a little bit with the hard tires we chose, we're struggling to warm it up a little bit. So if we were back behind a few people I think we would've struggled to overtake them and get through to the front."

Stoner's biggest lead was .855 sec. on the 12th of 30 laps as Lorenzo closed. Stoner was able to hold off Lorenzo for a while, but he knew he couldn't hold him back forever.

"It's not such a nice feeling when you know people are on the verge of overtaking you in any corner at any time," he said. "So from that moment, I was just braking as hard as I could, trying as hard as I could, going as deep as I could into the corners to make sure nobody was coming past me, without making mistakes and trying to keep my corner speed and my lap times still consistent. It was a lot of hard work. I had a lot of pressure coming from behind but I just tried to do everything we could and as best as I could."

Stoner knew what Lorenzo had done to rush up to second and that his progress wouldn't be easily impeded.

"So I did everything I could to try to block everybody and keep them behind, but it was inevitable that Jorge was going to come past," he said. "And from that moment I just tried to hang onto him, but there was no chance. After a couple laps pulled a small advantage and from there it was just so difficult to hold on there and fight."

Stoner congratulated Lorenzo, who'd also won last week in Estoril after having not won since the Czech Grand Prix in August, "and we've just got to look forward to next year and I think this is a great way to sign off with Ducati."

Rossi's early race performance was as deceptive as Stoner's, maybe more so. Though he hadn't been bothered by his shoulder injury in the past few races, it cropped up in Valencia. He hung tough with Lorenzo until the 21st lap when the Spaniard had nearly a second on him. It was then he had to admit that he wasn't fit, so he started to lose strength in the "right hand and then to the left and then to the leg. So I need more distance for stop the bike, unfortunately. I start to do some mistakes behind Jorge to run wide and I have to do that, I have to slow down. And if you are not 100% with this level is impossible.

"But anyway, the podium is great. I keep the third position in the championship but especially arrive on the podium in the last race is my way to say thank you to Yamaha for all these seasons, great achievement, great races, but especially great enjoyment. We enjoy a lot."

Behind Lorenzo's 383 points came Pedrosa, a fading seventh today, with 245. Then Rossi with 233 and Stoner with 225.

Rossi's first taste of the Ducati Desmosedici will come in Valencia here on Tuesday, the first of two days of testing. Then he returns home to Italy to have his right shoulder surgically repaired on either Monday or Tuesday of the following week in Milan.

"Will be quite long time for come back," he said. "Hard work and I hope to be quite fit for the first test in Sepang," the first week in February, "and if I will not be at 100%, anyway I hope to be at the maximum for the first race of the next season," in Qatar on March 20.

Ben Spies finished a memorable rookie MotoGP season with a come from behind fourth in a race he might have been ruled out of. Spies aggravated a previous left ankle injury in a sighting lap crash a week earlier in Portugal. He walked with a pronounced limp, but it didn't seem to affect his riding.

As he's often done this season, the Texan got stronger as the race went on. Part of it is lack of track familiarity, part of it is his comfort level on worn tires. Today he was away seventh and sat there until the 21st lap. By then he'd closed up on Dovizioso in sixth after being as much as 1.7 seconds behind.

On the 21st lap he gained a spot when Pedrosa dropped from fourth to seventh and was on Simoncelli, who dropped from fifth to sixth on the 24th lap. Spies made his move on the 27th, taking both of the Italians over the course of the lap and pulling away to a comfortable fourth.

"I'm patting myself and my Monster Yamaha Tech3 crew on the back because to get sixth overall in the points is a great achievement for all of us," the previously crowned Rookie of the Year said. "It was a good race and once I settled I could see the three Hondas coming back to me quite quickly. I kept them about a second in front of me and pounced when I felt confident I could pass them and pull away. They had some acceleration on me off the turns, so I knew when I made the pass it needed to be into a string of corners and not onto a straight. Once I passed Andrea and Marco I put my head down for a couple of laps and got rid of them.

"To finish fourth after last week's crash in Estoril is the perfect finish to what has been a great season. I said at the beginning of the season that a top five feels like a win and now this feels more like a normal result. I've had a better year than I thought I would have, so thanks to my team and all the people around me who have given me unbelievable support. I've learned a lot this season and I'm confident I will be even stronger in 2011."

Spies now moves up to the Yamaha factory team as Jorge Lorenzo's teammate.

The other Americans didn't fare as well. Teammate Colin Edwards needed a final lap pass of Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) to finish 12th. Ducati Marlboro's Nicky Hayden crashed out of second place while chasing Stoner on the second lap.

"I wanted to finish the season on a high to reward my crew for all their hard work, but that was way below what I was expecting and to say I'm disappointed and frustrated is an understatement," Edwards said. "Right from the start it just didn't feel like I had any grip when I accelerated. We'd set the bike up on the hard tire for most of the weekend but we went for the soft option because the temperature was a little bit lower. But coming out of the corner I didn't have the grip to stay with anybody and it is a big pity because the changes we'd made to the bike for the hard tire this weekend had helped me feel much more confident and comfortable."

Said Hayden, "I got into second and turn one, I didn't really get in any hotter than I had been the lap before or anything, but the front was a little bit lower and got on the bump rubber and when it does that it turns it in and it was on the bottom, so (it tucked)." He'd been encouraged by being fastest in the morning warm-up, despite having the slowest bike on top speed. "I had a full tank of gas this morning, but I wasn't touching it. So I was in the right margin, but in the race got on it and it was pretty quick, pretty early. There wasn't no saving it."

Dovizioso, who will be on a factory Honda next year, though which team hasn't been decided, was the first Honda home in fifth. He'd lost Simoncelli, who finished sixth, and Pedrosa, who fought through the pain barrier of his mending left collarbone to finish seventh.

"Honestly, I was not sure at all before the start that I could do 30 laps today, but I managed to do it and I'm very happy now, and also exhausted," he said.

Hector Barbera (Paginas Amarillas Ducati) passed Alvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) on the last lap to take eighth. Barbera was ninth.

Frenchman Randy de Puniet ended his Honda career with a tenth place finish before moving to the Pramac Racing Ducati team. The rider he'll replace, Aleix Espargaro, finished 11th, well clear of Edwards.

In his last MotoGP ride before joining Yamaha's World Superbike team, Marco Melandri finished 13th. Hiroshi Aoyama, who will likely stay in MotoGP on the San Carlo Gresini Honda team, was 14th. And Carlos Checa scored a point by finishing last in place of the injured Mika Kallio on the Pramac Racing Ducati.

2010 Valencia Spain MotoGP results:
1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Yamaha
2. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha
4. Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Honda
6. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) Honda
7. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda
8. Hector Barbera (SPA) Ducati
9. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Suzuki
10. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Honda
11. Alvaro Espargaro (SPA) Ducati
12. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda
14. Hiroshi Aoyama (JAP) Honda
15. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati