KTM’s Miguel Oliveira won the final race of the season as Ducati wins the constructors title. MotoGP 2020 ends and some riders say goodbye.
After 14 rounds of the craziest sporting series we’ve seen in many a year, the curtain finally closed for the 2020 MotoGP season. The titles had been decided and it was gloves off for the finale.
Pole position was Miguel Oliveira, with Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller joining him on the front row. It was the final full-time race for Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso, and there was an end of term feel as 2021 will look completely different.
For the final time in 2020, out went the lights. It was Oliveira who led away from Morbidelli and Miller. There was early drama as Francesco Bagnaia had problems, then Mir almost crashed, and Brad Binder then did. Oliveira then left and built a gap, while everyone fought for the minors. Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins scrapped it out for eighth, while Crutchlow, Pol Espargaro, and Stefan Bradl battled for fourth. A queue then began to form behind Espargaro for fourth, stretching back to the end of the pack. Taka Nakagami fired on Quartararo to take ninth. Then they all ganged up on the Frenchman, who dropped to 12th.
We began to see a tyre drop off with 12 laps left, and the fourth-place battle involved just about everyone. Not under threat though, was Oliveira, who was four seconds ahead halfway through. Then the champion was out. Juan Mir had a failure of some sort and pulled into the pits and out of the race. It was a house of horrors for Rins too, who was down in 14th with six laps left. They were carving each other up in the top 10, Dovizioso now fifth. Though the real battle was for second late on. Miller and Morbidelli were separated by nothing, and a battle was brewing.
Then it was last lap time, Miguel Oliveira was certainly going to win, but second was still up for grabs. In the end, it was Oliveira who won at home. Jack Miller took second on the last lap, and Franco Morbidelli took third. Ducati took the constructors title thanks to Miller’s third.
And so the curtain fell on the 2020 MotoGP season. A season which would be etched in history, a new champion, some new challengers, and a multitude of records broken. Juan Mir was the world champion, Suzuki the team’s champion. However, Ducati stole the make’s title at the last round. Andrea Dovizioso, Cal Crutchlow, and Tito Rabat say goodbye to MotoGP, and a myriad of riders change teams for 2021. Now, we MotoGP fans, rug up and hibernate until the new season in March.
