Francesco Bagnaia sealed off the 2022 MotoGP World Championship after a season long battle with defending champion Fabio Quartararo in an epic season finale, which saw the championship leaders make contact. Pecco was leading the championship coming into the final round by a sizeable margin, and for Quartararo to surmount that lead, he would have had to win the race with Pecco finishing 15th or lower.
Quartararo made a valiant effort and didn't give up through the entire race, but he could only manage to finish the finale at Valencia in P4. Bagnaia meanwhile could only manage to finish P9, which was enough to seal off the championship.