Curtain Call: MotoGP Round 18: Valencia preview

When I started writing about this season for Motor Oil, I never thought we'd still have two championships up for grabs come the end of the year. Hell, at the end of August, I'd have put money on this all being a dead rubber, yet here we are, Valencia beckons, and the MotoGP and Moto3 championships can be won and lost. Let's have a look.

The track

It seems to mostly be a fairly gentle, nice end of the season race. That flies out of the window this weekend, of course.

How the title can be won

There's a lot of permutations surrounding the MotoGP title, mostly based around where Valentino Rossi will start the race from (more on that below). This quote, from MotoGP.com, explains it better than I could.

All of the scenarios that could play out at Valencia in regards to the 2015 MotoGP™ World Championship title fight.

The MotoGP™ title battle goes to the final event of the year with just seven points separating championship leader Valentino Rossi and teammate Jorge Lorenzo. If the two riders finish equal on points then Lorenzo will take the title because he has more wins in 2015. Below are the scenarios with regard to the championship title:

If Lorenzo wins the race then Rossi needs to finish second to become world champion.

If Lorenzo finishes second then Rossi needs to finish on the podium to become world champion.

If Lorenzo finishes third then Rossi needs to finish sixth or better to become world champion.

If Lorenzo finishes fourth then Rossi needs to finish ninth or better to become world champion.

If Lorenzo finishes fifth to ninth then Rossi needs to finish no more than six places further back to become world champion.

If Lorenzo finishes lower than ninth then Rossi will be world champion.

It's a lot clearer in Moto3. If Danny Kent finishes 14th or higher, he is world champion. Should he finish 15th, coupled with a win for Miguel Oliveira, it would go to a tiebreaker. An Oliveira win would equal Kent's 6 wins, but curiously Oliveira has more second places than Kent, meaning he would be champion. Any non-points finish from Kent would give Oliveira the title, if he wins the race. TL;DR, Oliveira needs to win, Kent needs to pretty much stay on.

The news

You might have heard about a little penalty a certain 46 picked up in Malaysia. It was silly, and it's done. Well, not quite. Valentino appealed the decision, and it will be heard after this has been published. If it remains in place, he will start from the back of the grid, effectively handing the title to Jorge Lorenzo (at least if he can finish top six.)

Next year's calendar has been unveiled. The Red Bull Ring replaces Indianapolis, but the calendar otherwise remains an 18-race season - should Jerez and Brno get their contracts complete. Check it out here.

Race times