Table of contents:
- Cheste's will be Valentino Rossi's last race in MotoGP
- Dani Pedrosa is the rider who has won the most at Cheste
- There are serious rain options for race Sunday
- Schedules MotoGP Valencia 2021
It's over. The 2021 MotoGP World Championship closes this coming weekend with the Valencia Grand Prix. The Ricardo Tormo de Cheste circuit will once again host the end of the MotoGP season, after a year in which it was Portimao who was in charge of closing the biker party.
Fabio Quartararo was already proclaimed MotoGP world champion in Misano and Pedro Acosta sentenced the title in the Algarve, but there is still an open battle for Valencia. Raúl Fernández has options to take the Moto2 World Championship from Remy Gardner, although he needs to win and a serious failure from the Australian.
Cheste's will be Valentino Rossi's last race in MotoGP
After the Portimao race there are not too many battles open in MotoGP, as Ducati finished the world of brands and Pecco Bagnaia was runner-up. The only world championship that is still open is the team one, where the Ducati official leads Yamaha by 28 points. In Iwata they would practically need a miracle.
The good thing for them is that, a priori, Cheste should be a favorable circuit for Yamaha. Franco Morbidelli won one of the races last season, and it is that the twisty character of the Valencian circuit historically favors in-line engines. Although there are some drawbacks to this theory.
The first that there are enough rain options, and we already know that in that territory the Ducati makes a difference. The latest forecasts predict that there may be water on both Saturday and Sunday, although nothing is definitive.
In Valencia Marquez will not return after his concussion while practicing motocross, since it has been confirmed that he suffers again a diplopia that will also leave him out of the post-season test that will be held the following week in Jerez.
Another name to follow throughout the weekend is going to be Joan Mir, who last season lived a dream in Valencia. He won his first MotoGP race and was proclaimed world champion in the repetition. After a great race in Portimao, he faces his last chance to win at least one Grand Prix in 2021.
Finally, you cannot ignore what will surely be the main theme of this Valencia Grand Prix. It will be Valentino Rossi's last race as a MotoGP rider, as he will hang up the helmet after 26 unforgettable seasons in the World Cup. Surely there is already a large fireworks prepared to see you off.
Dani Pedrosa is the rider who has won the most at Cheste
This season's will be the 23rd Valencia Grand Prix held at the Ricardo Tormo de Cheste circuit, and the 24th MotoGP race if we add last year's European Grand Prix. No year, not even because of COVID-19, has Valencia been off the MotoGP calendar since 1999.
And this circuit has a clear dominator. Dani Pedrosa is the driver who has won the most races in Cheste with a total of seven, four of them in MotoGP. If we only count the premier category, it would be tied with another Spanish contemporary, Jorge Lorenzo, who also accumulates a poker of triumphs.
curiously neither Marc Márquez nor Valentino Rossi have ever had an overly affectionate love affair with Valenciaalthough, obviously, the two have won. The Spanish did it in 2014 and 2019 in the premier class, and in 2012 in Moto2, while Rossi only has the victories of 2003 and 2004, one with Honda and the other with Yamaha.
By brands Honda wins with ten victories at Cheste, ahead of Yamaha which accumulates eight. Although it is repeated that Valencia is not a circuit for Ducati, they have won there three times, with Troy Bayliss, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso, while the remaining two victories are for Suzuki with Joan Mir and Sete Gibernau.
There are serious rain options for race Sunday
To follow the Valencia Grand Prix live there are two alternatives. DAZN is still the sole holder of the MotoGP rights in Spain, but Movistar + will puncture the signal of the entire Grand Prix on its DAZN 1 channel, after the agreement reached by both platforms. In addition, the MotoGP VideoPass will always be available.
In Valencia, the traditional schedules return. The MotoGP race will start at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, and before that the Moto3 and Moto2 championships will be defined.. The weather forecast indicates that we will have a somewhat cool weekend and with some rain option for both Saturday and Sunday that could put a lot of spice to the resolution of Moto2.
Schedules MotoGP Valencia 2021
- (FP1) Moto3 free practice: 9:00
- (FP1) MotoGP free practice: 9:55
- (FP1) Moto2 free practice: 10:55
- (FP2) Moto3 free practice: 13:15
- (FP2) MotoGP free practice: 14:10
- (FP2) Moto2 free practice: 15:10
- (FP3) Moto3 free practice: 9:00
- (FP3) MotoGP free practice: 9:55
- (FP3) Moto2 free practice: 10:55
- (Q1) Moto3 timed practice: 12:35
- (Q2) Moto3 timed practice: 13:00
- (FP4) MotoGP free practice: 13:30
- (Q1) MotoGP timed practice: 14:10
- (Q2) MotoGP timed practice: 14:35
- (Q1) Moto2 timed practice: 15:10
- (Q2) Moto2 timed practice: 15:35
- (WUP) Warm Up Moto3: 8:40
- (WUP) Warm Up MotoGP: 9:10
- WUP) Warm Up Moto2: 9:40
- (RAC) Moto3 Race: 11:00
- (RAC) Moto2 Race: 12:20
- (RAC) MotoGP Race: 14:00
