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By Photo Journalist Nick Little

Last Sunday the Ricardo Tormo Circuit of Valencia hosted the final dramatic races of the MotoGp season in front of 94,000 race fans. In the MotoGP class, Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, who had been recuperating from bone injuries during the 2009 championship, came back to win his second race in of the season. Casey Stoner, who had dominated all weekend, secured himself pole position for the race, but sadly crashed out in the warm up lap leaving Pedrosa, Rossi and Lorenzo to fight for the podium number 1 spot well ahead of the field. Stoner’s non start gave away enough points for the race winner Pedrosa to take third place in the 2009 Championship. Rossi took the chequered flag 2.63 seconds behind Pedrosa with Lorenzo securing third place behind the 2009 world champion Valentino Rossi.

Valencia saw the “Swan Song” of the 250GP class as from 2010 the 600cc Moto2 class replaces this category. The last ever 250cc race was won by Spaniard Hector Barbera with Alvaro Bautista and Raffaele DE Rosa completing the podium. Marco Simoncelli, who had been a contender for the 2009 title spot along with championship leader Aoyama Hiroshi and Hector Barbera, crashed in the latter stages of the race. Hiroshi’s 7th place was enough to secure him sufficient points to take the 250cc 2009 World championship title and walk away with the last ever 250cc MotoGP trophy.

The 125cc class saw the third straight one-two for Bancaja Aspar Team. The already crowned 2009 world champion Julian Simon took the win for himself and Aprilla by 0.22 seconds after another thrilling battle with his team mate Bradley Smith, concluded again on the last lap. Pol Espargaro of Derbi Racing took an uncontested third and the bronze some 12 seconds later to complete the podium line-up.

It’s the end of an era for 250cc MotoGP and some of its riders and the dawn of the Moto2 class, welcoming new teams, riders and racing strategies for 2010.