The MotoGP Round-Up - Title Goes To Mir And Suzuki 15 November - Valencia, Spain

Most Exciting Season Highlights the Most Boring (But Most Useful) Trait

When talking about the adrenalin-fuelled sport of racing, be it on two wheels or four, the last thing you want to hear about is ‘consistency’. That trait is the very antithesis of what racing should be about, which is fighting tooth and nail for the lead every metre of every lap. And yet, consistency is how Joan Mir has got both hands on the MotoGP championship in 2020.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if Mir has been tooling round amassing podiums in order to get the job done. He has been fighting tooth and nail; it’s just that that has resulted in him getting podium after podium while his rivals see-sawed up and down the finishing order like yo-yos.

Personally, I wouldn’t have cared if he had taken the championship without a race win - what a fantastic story to end what has been an incredible year. But it feels absolutely right that he was rewarded with his first win in Valencia in what ultimately became his championship year. It just rounds off the story perfectly.

If conditions for Valencia 1 were unpredictable, then Valencia 2 was much easier on the riders, it being largely dry and (almost) warm! Not that this helped Fabio Quartararo. Certainly, he qualified well but the race pretty much summed up the large part of his season; very nearly taking out Viñales at turn one of lap one and completely overshooting the corner before re-joining virtually last. He was making progress back through the pack before sliding ignominiously out of the race.

From looking like a shoe-in for the championship to looking hopelessly lost, down and out, Quartararo must be looking back and wondering exactly it all went wrong after winning the first two races at a canter.