MotoGP: in Valencia, last dance for King Valentino Rossi

See the myth one last time.

For many fans this weekend, the attraction will not be the 2021 world champion, 22-year-old Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, but Valentino Rossi, 42, who is no longer winning but is still moving the crowds.

The rider who crushed everything in the first decade of the century has long left the helm of MotoGP.

There was the Spaniard Marc Marquez, titled six times in seven seasons from 2013 to 2019. There will perhaps be, for the 2020s, Quartararo domination.

But in the meantime, it's time to say goodbye. After his 372nd Grand Prix in the premier class since 2000 and his 432nd worldwide since 1996, Rossi will hang up his suit. A record longevity doubled by an extraordinary track record, with one title in 125cc (1997), another in 250cc (1999) and seven in the elite: one in 500cc in 2001, then six since the change to the appellation MotoGP, from 2002 to 2005 then in 2008 and 2009.

However, recent years will not be remembered, with a 7th place in 2019, a 15th in 2020 and for the moment a 20th in 2021, relegated to the Yamaha-SRT satellite team at the start of the season. His best result is only 8th position for the worst season of his career, the first without a podium. Rossi therefore leaves without regrets a discipline in which he could no longer shine. But it will remain omnipresent there. As team boss, with the arrival of the VR46 in MotoGP, Ducati's new satellite team.

He will also remain a mentor to pilots trained in his academy, starting with Francesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli or Luca Marini, his half-brother.

In hearts at last.

Of his loyal supporters, of course, but also of the young drivers who grew up idolizing him.

“Last dance for the king”, for example wrote on his Instagram account Quartararo, which the first saw Rossi as “the hero of (his) childhood”.

Because apart from the emotion, this last GP of the year has no sporting stake, Quartararo and his vice-champion Bagnaia having had the politeness to settle their accounts at the end of October so as not to overshadow the “Doctor”.

Mark still forfeit

With Joan Mir (Suzuki) 3rd, the podium is already closed and, for suspense, we will look to the place of 4th which remains to be decided between Jack Miller (Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac), separated by two points .

Quartararo, who has just retired after a fall in Portugal, will nevertheless be keen to win his sixth victory this season, to finish in style.

“Pecco” Bagnaia (24), winner of his third Grand Prix last Sunday in Portimao, will want to continue to consider 2022 with greater confidence.

Marquez, on the other hand, will not attend the GP.

The six-time MotoGP champion withdrew again, as in Portugal, due to a fall during off-road training.

The Spaniard, who suffered a "slight concussion" at the time of the shock, is prone to diplopia (double vision) which will also prevent him from participating in the Jerez tests next week.