2006 – After a more difficult latter half of the season, Nicky Hayden arrived at the final round of the year in Valencia having lost the Championship lead the race before, at Estoril. His rival for the title was none other than Valentino Rossi – already legendary – and the Italian had won the five previous titles in a row. After spending the year playing catch up to Hayden in the standings, Rossi was the points leader for the first time when the paddock touched down in Valencia – but only eight ahead…
2013 – The first year Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) raced in the premier class was an incredible one. Arriving in Valencia as leader by 13 points, the rookie of the year had his chance at making history – with reigning Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) the man left to stand in his way. The season was a rollercoaster of incredible races and shocking twists: Marquez was black flagged at Phillip Island, Rossi came back to Yamaha, both Pedrosa and Lorenzo broke collarbones, the latter twice - but it was Lorenzo left in the title fight by the last showdown of the year: the reigning Champion vs the rookie…
2015 – Tensions reached boiling point at the penultimate round of the 2015 Championship in Sepang, with an incident involving Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) and Marc Marquez seeing the Italian penalised with penalty points. Added to another point picked up at Misano, the Italian was forced to start the last race of the year in Valencia from the back of the grid.
Title rival Lorenzo was on pole, and escaped at the front with Marquez and Pedrosa as Rossi began his fight back – with the ‘Spartan’ needing to cross the line at least second if his Italian rival was to make it up into fourth…
Moto2™ classic: 2012 - Marc Marquez had already wrapped up the intermediate class crown by the time he got back on track in Valencia, but the new King of Moto2™ still had something in the locker for the final race of the year. Colliding with another rider in practice and forced to start from the back as a penalty, Marquez said goodbye to Moto2™ in spectacular style - gaining more than 30 places.
Moto3™ classic: 2014 - Alex Marquez took the Championship lead in Moto3™ at home at MotorLand Aragon, and after a rollercoaster on the flyaways arrived at the last race of the year still just ahead. With title rival Jack Miller disappeared in the lead, Marquez found himself down outside the top ten part way through the race - and needed to get on the podium to take the title...