Miller ran wide on the exit, allow-
ing Morbidelli back by at turn two.
However, Miller wasn't done yet and
attacked again at turn four, taking
another short-lived lead as Morbidelli
countered at turn five to retake the
point.
That's as close as Miller would
come to retaking the lead, and a
slight mistake at the turn 11 hairpin
allowed Morbidelli enough of a gap
to hold it to the flag for a miniscule
0.093-second victory, his third of the
year and MotoGP career. Third went
to Red Bull KTM's Pol Espargaro,
three seconds off the leading duo.
Suzuki's Alex Rins recovered from
a lowly 14th on the grid to take fourth,
seeing his faint title hopes dashed
with Mir circulating in a title-winning
seventh. Rins eventually broke clear
of Red Bull KTM's Brad Binder in
fifth, who, in turn, was three seconds
up on Red Bull Tech 3 KTM's Miguel
Oliveira. Mir came home seventh,
just ahead of Ducati's Andrea
Dovizioso. Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro
and Monster Energy Yamaha's Mav-
erick Vinales rounded out the top 10.
Mir's main title rival, Petronas Ya-
maha's Fabio Quartararo, had a dis-
mal weekend at Valencia, qualifying
in 12th and running off track at turn
two on the opening lap. He rejoined,
only to crash at turn six with 10 laps
completed.
In the championship, Mir takes
the title with one round remaining at
171 points from Morbidelli's 142, Rins
is third with 138 and still in with a
chance of sealing a historic one-two
for Suzuki in the title chase. The final
round is at Portimao in Portugal this
weekend.
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 17, 2020 P57
IIIMY OWN RACE:
re in the race and I had to change
my riding style slightly. I couldn't pull
away from Jack [Miller] like I wanted
to, despite trying so hard, and I knew
that he would be a strong compe tor
if he got close to me. It was all about
giving more than you have on the last
lap and that's what both of us did.
We had a really nice, clean fight. I've
always liked ba ling Jack because he
is tough but clean in his ba les, and
he was strong today so congratula-
ons to him. I am so happy with the
win today so thank you to the team
as well. I also want to say congratula-
ons to Joan [Mir] for winning the
tle this year; he has been a really
strong compe tor this year."
43 JACK MILLER
2ND MOTOGP
"I'm very happy, I had fun from the
first lap. It was one of the most beau-
ful races of my life, it's a shame be-
cause at a certain point when I passed
Morbidelli I thought I could win, but
when you finish figh ng a good duel
you can only be happy. A special
thanks to my team who worked very
well."
Franco Morbidelli and
Jack Miller lead Pol
Espargaro, who is
desperately trying to
hang on. The top two
eventually stretched
away from the KTM rider
and the pair produced a
last lap for the ages.
