The fight for the 2015 MotoGP World Championship lasted until the last race in Valencia. Valentino Rossi had managed to lead the entire season thanks to his regularity despite having only four victories. Marc Márquez was ruled out early due to crashes, while Jorge Lorenzo became the main contender as he was the one who achieved the most wins that year.
The season had already started with controversy after the contact that Rossi and Márquez had in Argentina risking the race, the origin of a war that would break out months later in Malaysia. In Holland they had it again after a controversial victory for the Italian skipping the last chicane, but the mess started after the Australian Grand Prix. There, the three protagonists plus Andrea Iannone fought for victory. The #46 was the one left off the podium and his championship lead was reduced. The accounts stopped coming out and in Sepang after an exchange of statements with #93 at a press conference he ended up kicking him in the race.
Rossi was penalized to start last in Valencia. He arrived seven points clear of Lorenzo and needed to be second at least if the Spaniard was to win. Although he came back to fourth place, the Spaniard prevailed and won his third MotoGP title.
Six years later the picture is quite different. Márquez won every championship from then until 2019 and won 32 of the 72 races held (44%). However, an injury in 2020 cut that trend and after spending the season in white, since his reappearance in 2021 he has only won three grands prix.
Lorenzo , for his part, decided to sign for Ducati at the beginning of 2016 following the renewal of Rossi. In his last campaign at Yamaha he achieved four more victories, before embarking on the adventure in red. The first year he only got three podiums, but in the second he added his last three wins before leaving for Honda . With the golden wing brand he had a year to forget, due to injuries among others, and after closing the campaign without a single podium finish for the second time since his debut in the championship in 2002, he decided to hang up his helmet.
Meanwhile, Rossi managed to extend his career until he was 42 years old. In 2016 he finished runner-up in the world again, with two victories. A year later he added his last victory to date in Assen, finishing the championship in third place. In 2018 course he repeated the same position, but he did not win. It was worse for him in 2019, when he finished 7th. Il dottore signed his last podium in 2020 and since then his performance has plummeted. After moving to the Petronas satellite team in 2021, in the summer he announced his retirement at the conclusion of the last race.
↓ The 20 best images of that 2015 Valencia GP ↓
Photo by: Bridgestone
Photo by: Repsol Media
Photo by: Bridgestone
Photo by: Bridgestone
Photo de: Suzuki MotoGP
Photo by: Bridgestone
Photo by: Yamaha
Photo by: Yamaha
Photo by: Repsol Media
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Photo de: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Foto de: Yamaha MotoGP
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
