Enea Bastianini who lost out on the Rookie of
the Year trophy to Martin at Valencia. He headed
Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro and the man of the hour,
Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha), who signed
off his stellar MotoGP career with 10th place.
"I didn't expect that it could be a weekend like
this," Rossi said. "I was very worried for this week-
end because I didn't know how I felt and there
was a lot of pressure with many things to do. It
was fantastic, I received a lot of positive energy
from all the people in the paddock and I had a lot
of great surprises: from seeing all my bikes on
Thursday, to all the VR46 Academy riders with my
helmets today. I'm also happy because I was able
to be strong in both qualifying yesterday and in the
race today, finishing in the top-ten. I enjoyed it a
lot and it was the best way to finish."
In the championship, Fabio Quartararo takes
the gold with 278 points ahead of Bagnaia's 252
with Mir sealing third at 208.
ROUND 18 / NOVEMBER 12-14, 2021
RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT / VALENCIA, SPAIN
P64
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
been in strong shape, finishing Friday with the second
fastest time. But when pushing on in the closing min-
utes of Saturday morning's session, he suffered a huge
impact that damaged ribs, which left him whimpering
when breathing, ruling him out of the race. "Unfortu-
nately, today I had a very big crash during FP3 at Turn
13," the younger Espargaro brother said. "The impact
was very hard but fortunately I have no serious injuries,
and nothing appeared broken in the tests we did at the
hospital. At the moment I have a lot of pain from around
my ribs when I breathe, this is what hurts most."
YAMAHA CONFIRMS MOTO2 ENTRY
On Saturday, Yamaha confirmed its official entry for the
Moto2 class in 2022. The VR46 Master Camp Team
will run World Supersport race winner Manuel Gon-
zalez and Thai rider Keminth Kubo on a pair of Kalex
chassis with direct support from of the Thai Yamaha
Motor Company and Yamaha Motor Europe. The VR46
company will manage the effort with Gelete Nieto—son
of the Spanish legend Angel—named as the sporting
director of this new venture.
Briefly...
Eventual 10th-place
finisher Maverick
Vinales (red) leads
Miguel Oliveira and
Enea Bas anini.
