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MotoGP Valencia: Lorenzo reigns in Spain as he wins last race with Yamaha

Jorge Lorenzo ended his Movistar Yamaha days with the perfect goodbye as he won the final MotoGP race of the season at Valencia.

The outgoing champion led from lights to flag, and despite struggling with tyre wear in the closing laps, was able to hold off a late charge by Marc Marquez to take the win by just over a second.

As expected and feared, the polesitter – who has dominated much of the weekend - got the best start and led into the first corner while behind him, Marc Marquez went backwards into fifth, while his Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa came through from eighth to sixth.

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Andrea Iannone, in his final ride for Ducati, shot through to second closely followed by the Suzuki Ecstar of Maverick Vinales, while Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi tucked in to fourth.

Lorenzo took just a lap to eke out a little lead, and set a new race lap record, which he then just stretched further and further as the race wore on, and it was soon clear the battle to watch would be that for second.

Rossi moved ahead of Vinales on the fifth lap, and Marquez followed suit a lap later but Pedrosa’s race ended shortly after as he crashed out the start of lap seven.

Rossi was now leaning hard on Iannone, and made a move for second, starting a dice which went on for several laps as the pair swapped positions. This not only gave Lorenzo the chance to stretch his lead up front, it also allowed Marquez to get involved in the scrap.

On lap 17, Iannone finally got back past and made it stick while elsewhere on the track Britain’s Cal Crutchlow’s challenging weekend ended in the gravel as he crashed out at turn 14 from 9th position.

Marquez passed The Doctor on lap 19 for third, and a lap later deposed Iannone for second. From here, he began to hunt down his countryman who was more than four seconds ahead.

With around five laps left, both Rossi and Lorenzo looked to be losing time as tyre wear came into play. Marquez meanwhile was flying, closing the gap to Lorenzo lap by lap.

Iannone – still not fully fit – was now tiring and coming under pressure from Rossi who made a move on the penultimate lap. But Iannone was not about to surrender a podium in his final race for the Italian factory, and pushed The Doctor wide as he shoved himself back to third.

Lorenzo began the last lap with a lead of just over a second and half, and luckily for him time ran out for Marquez, and the younger Spaniard had to concede as Lorenzo crossed the line to take the win by 1’185s. Iannone managed to hold on to third ahead of Rossi, with his soon-to-be team-mate Maverick Vinales fifth.

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Pol Espargaro on the Monster Yamaha finished seventh, just ahead of the second Suzuki of brother Aleix while Bradley Smith was the highest placed Brit as he finished ninth ahead of the Aprilia of Alvaro Bautista.

Brit Scott Redding brought his Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati home in 14th position, as Eugene Laverty ended his current MotoGP run in 16th, as the Pull & Bear Aspar Team rider prepares to return to World Superbikes next year.

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