The MotoGP Season Ends at the Valencia GP

Well that’s it folks, the MotoGP season is over. Not to spoil it, but Randy de Puniet was not the come-from-behind points winner for the rider’s cup. Click on the jump to see every dirty spoiler.

Stoner, Pedrosa, Rossi…

This season ended the same way it started, with Casey Stoner riding the Ducati all the way to the finish line…ahead of everyone else. Stoner pulled out an early lead, after reeling in Dani Pedrosa, leaving the rest of the pack to play “follow the leader” for the rest of the race.

Valentino Rossi could only watch from his third place position while Dani and Casey lengthened their leads on him lap after lap. Valencia is a track that has plagued the multiple (and no record number) World Champion Valentino Rossi, and today was no different. The Italian still showed the crowd what Champions are made of, but was unable to give them a top podium finish. In typical Valentino style before the race, Rossi made remarks of doubt about his expected performance citing issues getting the bike to respond the way he wanted in the rain and damp of qualifying and testing.

Despite his podium, Stoner finishes the season in second place 93 points behind Rossi. The Australian superstar of last year has certainly had a season worthy of praise, but lacked the complete and total domination that Ducati had last year.

Other star performances came from Danny Pedrosa, who was up to his usual rabbit starts, but was unable to hold off Stoner’s advances, and had to be content to finishing the race over three seconds behind the Australian.

Andrea Dovizioso who has had an amazing season by any racer’s standards, let alone a rookie. No surprises there, Dovi is sure to be a racer to watch in the next few seasons. Despite his epic rides, Dovi couldn’t stop the other resident Rookie Jorge Lorenzo from taking the rookie of the year crown. Lorenzo has had a stellar season, which has only been marred by his physical injuries. Hopefully he can heal up over the winter months, and make a proper bid for superstardom next season.

Anthony West didn’t get achieve his goal of besting Marco Melandri who is to replace him at Kawasaki nextseason. Marco finished three seconds ahead of Anthony.

Tomorrow starts a whole new season, with almost all the 2009 MotoGP teams starting their testing at Valencia. Say goodnight sweet prince…of cake…or…have your cake, and eat it too. Damn, I can’t decide what pun to use.

2008 Valencia Results:

Final 2008 MotoGP Championship Standings:

Source: MotoGP.com Photos: MotoGP.com

Randy de Puniet…we’ve never seen someone look so good, going so slow.