Melandri wins in Valencia

Marco Melandri has won the final MotoGP race of the year at Valencia.

The Italian rider lead the race from start to finish after getting the best start. Hayden was on his tale throughout but could never get enough speed to get past.

Rossi start from 15th position, the fifth row of the grid, and managed to work his way up to third position, but too late to make a challenge for the lead.

The newly re-crowned world champion took his 16th podium out of 17 races after closeing down the from 6 second off Hayden to under 2 seconds off in under 10 laps.

Carlos Checa was the only man to threaten Rossi keeping him busy just long enough to prevent him from going for the front runners.

Sete Gibernau was forced to pull out from third position on the first lap when his engine gave out.

Check out the lap-by-lap report on the race below.

Click the next page to see 250 and 125 results

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Final positions: Melandri, Hayden, Rossi, Checa, Barros, Biaggi, Capirossi, Edwards, Tamada, Elias, Nakano, Kiyonari, Hopkins, Hoffman, Xaus, Battaini. DNF: Roberts, Ellison, Aoki, Gibernau

Melandri is so mobbed by his fans he dropped his bike trying to do a burnout

Last Lap: Hayden closed right up but couldn’t pass leaving Melandri to take his second win of the year

Last Lap: Rossi is just 2.3 seconds behind.

Lap 29: Melandri is finally pulling a gap on Hayden to prevent a last lap pass

Lap 28: Melandri Hayden Rossi Checa Barros Biaggi Capirossi Edwards

Lap 26: Rossi has moved up to 3.247 seconds down on Hayden but doesn’t have enough laps left to catch them him and Melandri

Lap 25: Rossi is now in the same shot as the front two riders and closing fast. 3.56 behind

Lap 24: Still the same positions for the top 8

Lap 23: Rossi just 3.7 seconds behind Hayden

Lap 22: Rossi takes a furth.6 of a second out of Hayden. The back markers are now in play

Lap 22: Melandri – 0.4 – Hayden – 4.5 – Rossi

Lap 21: Barros tries to pass Biaggi but overcooked it and ran wide letting BIaggi back through

Lap 20: Rossi has slowed down his approach on Hayden and is still 4.9 seconds behind in third

Lap 19: Melandri Hayden Rossi Checa Biaggi Barros Capriossi

Lap 17: Rossi has gained a second on Hayden and is still catching

Lap 16: Melandri Hayden Rossi Checa Biaggi Barros Capriossi Edwards

Lap 15: Rossi pulls a small gap on Checa

Lap 14: Hayden is right on the tale of Melandri. Rossi is almmost 6 seconds down on Hayden

Lap 11: Barros drops behind Capriossi, Rossi is struggling to catch the front two

Lap 9: Melandri, Hayden, Rossi, Checa, Biaggi, Barros, Capriossi

Lap 8: Rossi is struggling to get away from Carlos Checa. Rossi is struggling for grip

Lap 6: Melandri, Hayden, Rossi, Barros, Checa. Rossi is 4 seconds off Hayden. Brit James Ellison in 16th

Lap 6: Rossi goes past Checa and now has a job to catch up with Melandri and Hayden

Lap 5: Rossi is now up to fourth behind Melandri, Hayden and Checa

Lap 4: Checa goes past Biaggi, Rossi sets fastest lap and is now fifth

Lap 3: Melandri is pulling away at the front, Gibernau has a problem and is coasting out of the race

Lap 2: Gibernau takes fastest lap, still same top eight

13:02: Melandri, Hayden, Gibernau, Biaggi, Checa, Capirossi, Rossi

13:00: And their off: Melandri takes the holsshot, Rolfo crashes out

12.59: The bikes are out on the warmup lap

12:48: The Bikes are on the grid an waiting to go for their final warmup lap. Gibernau is on pole whike Valentino Rossi is down on the fifth row after a poor qualifying performance.

12:40: Starting positions:

1. Gibernau 1:31.874.

2. Melandri 1:32.111.

3. Hayden 1:32.217.

4. Checa 1:32.374.

5. Biaggi 1:32.384.

6. Edwards 1:32.456.

7. Capirossi 1:32.482.

8. Barros 1:32.518.

9. Nakano 1:32.663.

10. Tamada 1:32.682.

11. Hopkins 1:32.785.

12. Hofmann 1:32.966.

13. Elias 1:33.005.

14. Aoki 1:33.393.

15. Rossi 1:33.503.

16. Kiyonari 1:33.846.

17. Xaus 1:34.874.

18. Rolfo 1:34.978

19. Ellison 1:35.158.

20. Roberts 1:35.374.

21. Battaini 1:35.712.

Dani Pedrosa won the final 250cc race of the year, sealing the championship.

Results:

Daniel Pedrosa

Jorge Lorenzo

Casey Stoner

Alex De Angelis

Hector Barbera

Hiroshi Aoyama

Yuki Takahashi

Randy De Puniet

Andrea Dovizioso

Roberto Locatelli

Alex Debon

Jakub Smrz

Martin Cardenas

Sylvain Guintoli

Taro Sekiguchi

Chaz Davies

Steve Jenkner

Alex Baldolini

Mirko Giansanti

Mathieu Gines

Zheng Peng Li

DNF:

Andrea Ballerini

Simone Corsi

Dirk Heidolf

Erwan Nigon

Zhu Wang

Arturo Tizon

Alvaro Molina

Arnaud Vincent

125GP results:

Mika Kallio

Gabor Talmacsi

Mattia Pasini

Hector Faubel

Marco Simoncelli

Tomoyoshi Koyama

Fabrizio Lai

Julian Simon

Thomas Luthi

Pablo Nieto

Aleix Espargaro

Alvaro Bautista

Raffaele De Rosa

Joan Olive

Andrea Iannone

Nicolas Terol

Jordi Carchano

Enrique Jerez

Manuel Hernandez

Mateo Tunez

Imre Toth

Gioele Pellino

Vincent Braillard

Esteve Rabat

Julian Miralles

Sascha Hommel

DNF

Alexis Masbou

Sergio Gadea

Sandro Cortese

Jules Cluzel

Manuel Poggiali

Lorenzo Zanetti

Lukas Pesek

Daniel Saez

Karel Abraham

Federico Sandi

Mike Di Meglio

Dario Giuseppetti

David Bonache