(Reuters) -Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia won his maiden MotoGP world championship at the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday after Fabio Quartararo failed to overhaul him in the standings.
Defending champion Quartararo was 23 points behind Bagnaia going into the final race. The Yamaha rider needed nothing less than a victory to leapfrog the Italian but finished fourth in a race won by Suzuki’s Alex Rins.
Bagnaia was ninth, enough to retain his lead in the championship and give Ducati their first title since Casey Stoner won it in 2007, ending 15 years of dominance from Japanese manufacturers.
His title marked the greatest comeback in MotoGP history as he was 91 points down midway through the season and it ended a 50-year wait for an Italian rider to win the championship on an Italian bike.
Bagnaia celebrated by waving the Italian flag as Ducati presented him with a golden helmet, the visibly emotional 25-year-old taking a moment to compose himself before raising it in the air in celebration.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru,Editing by David Goodman and Ed Osmond)
