It's a fight to the finish today as the Valencia Grand Prix will decide the 2017 MotoGP champion. Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez will start the ultimate race of this season on pole despite a late crash in qualifying. His championship rival Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati qualified ninth. It will be an uphill task for the Italian to take the win as he trails behind Marquez in points for the world championship title. The Honda rider secured his 73rd career pole (45 in MotoGP), while it was his eighth pole of the season in Valencia.
It's been an extremely interesting season this year and we certainly hope Marquez and Dovizioso bring it down to the last lap. Honda's Marquez needs to finish in the top 11 to claim the championship, while Ducati's Dovizioso will have to take the win if he wants to dethrone Marquez. While it may seem impossible for now, MotoGP has been anything but predictable this year and that keeps our hopes high.
(Andrea Dovizioso has had one of the finest career graphs this season)
The Honda rider set an early pace through qualifying at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, and later improved to 1m29.897s that sealed the pole position. Coming in second was Johann Zarco of Tech 3 Yamaha after improving on his final lap, three tenths off polesitter Marquez. The front row was completed with Suzuki Ecstar's Andrea Iannone putting up a good pace in the season finale.
Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo seemed to have the pace to match Marquez in qualifying, but will only start fourth after crashing at the end of his first run at the final corner. Dani Pedrosa starts fifth and has a record for the most number of victories at the circuit. Ducati Team test rider and wildcard entry Michele Pirro will be starting sixth.
Valentino Rossi of Yamaha will start seventh in the race. While he's out of contention for the world title, the rider will be looking to finish the season on a better note. Lastly, Aleix Esparagaro will start behind Rossi followed by Suzuki Ecstar rider Alex Rins at P10.
(Pedrosa has a higher success steak at Valencia while Marquez needs to finish in top 11 to win)
The 2017 MotoGP final race in Valencia will be starting at 6.30 pm (IST). The warm up lap is complete and Marquz continues to lead, while Suzuki riders Rins and Iannone took P2 and P3. Dovizioso has shown signficiant improvement over qualifying and has taken P4. You can catch the 2017 Valencia GP on Sony ESPN, while you can also stream it for free on SonyLIV.com. We will be bringing you all the action that Valencia has to offer, so make sure to keep watching this space.
