It’s Monday, November 27, 2023 and this is Racing Recap, your summary of last weekend’s motorsports action. Formula One ended its season in Abu Dhabi with . Unlike F1, the MotoGP title fight went down to the season-ending Valencian Grand Prix. sealed his championship defense as contender Jorge Martin put himself and Marc Marquez in the gravel.

was a coronation run for Max Verstappen. Red Bull’s world champion won pole on Saturday, then led 52 laps of the 58-lap race en route to his 19th race win this season. Verstappen finished his year with an unprecedented total of 1,003 laps led, running out front for 75.7 percent of the time. No driver had surpassed the 70 percent threshold since Jim Clark in 1963.

Much of the race’s real intrigue was happening behind Verstappen as Ferrari and Mercedes battled for second in the World Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was running in second behind Verstappen, but the head-to-head struggle was complicated by Verstappen’s teammate Ferrari needed to finish lower than third to beat Mercedes.

Perez was running third on the track, but behind Russell with a five-second penalty applied for colliding with McLaren’s Leclerc decided it was in his team’s best interest to give the Red Bull driver a slipstream to try and pull away from the Mercedes. The ingenious tactic wasn’t enough, and Perez was classified just over a second behind Russell.

Race Results

Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - +17.993 seconds

George Russell (Mercedes) - +20.328 seconds

Sergio Perez (Red Bull) - +21.453 seconds

Lando Norris (McLaren) - +24.284 seconds

Jorge Martin Crashes Out In MotoGP Finale

With a 21-point lead, Francesco Bagnaia was in prime position to defend in Valencia, Spain. The Ducati driver just needed to have an average race weekend, while his title rival Jorge Martin had to be spectacular. Martin qualified sixth but won the sprint race to claw the deficit down to 14 points.

Martin’s championship pursuit ended only after five laps on Sunday. The Pramac rider ran wide in Turn 4 and crashed in the gravel trap. Martin also collected Marc Marquez in his farewell outing with Repsol Honda. Bagnaia eventually won both the race and championship.

Race Results

Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati)

Johann Zarco (Pramac) - +0.360 seconds

Brad Binder (KTM) - +2.347 seconds

Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini) - +3.176 seconds

Raúl Fernández (RNF) - +4.636 seconds