2012 Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix


The 2012 Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix was the eighteenth and final round of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 9–11 November 2012 at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo.
The race was Casey Stoner's last before his retirement from the sport, and he took a third place podium finish. Dani Pedrosa won the race for Honda. Newly crowned MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo retired from the race, and finished the season 18 points ahead of runner-up Pedrosa in the standings. The result meant that Pedrosa had won 6 of the season's last 8 races, and that Lorenzo maintained his record of finishing first or second in every race he finished in 2012. Katsuyuki Nakasuga made just his second appearance in 2012 in place of the injured Ben Spies at Yamaha, and took advantage of the wet conditions to finish in second place.
Marc Márquez won the Moto2 race, despite starting from last place on the grid. It was Márquez's last Moto2 race, as he would replace Stoner at the Honda team for the 2013 season. Polesitter Pol Espargaró secured second in the championship behind Márquez by finishing in eighth. In Moto3, Danny Kent took his second victory of the season in front of champion Sandro Cortese and Zulfahmi Khairuddin to complete an all-KTM podium.

Report

Moto2

During a Friday practice session, newly crowned Moto2 champion Marc Márquez knocked Simone Corsi off his bike while attempting an overtake and was penalised for riding in an irresponsible manner by Race Direction. He was told to start the race from 33rd and last place on the grid. Pol Espargaró took pole position, and was joined on the front row by Thomas Lüthi and Takaaki Nakagami.
Within the first three corners of the race, Márquez had overtaken twenty riders and moved up to 13th place; by the end of the first lap, he was running in 11th. Espargaró got away from the line cleanly but struggled to maintain pace in the wet conditions, and quickly began to cede positions. Aspar rider Nicolás Terol took the race lead, and quickly set a gap from the rest of the field. On lap 9 he was caught by Julián Simón, who then stretched out his own gap ahead of Terol. Márquez became embroiled in a midfield battle with Dominique Aegerter and Gino Rea, who crashed out at the halfway point. Márquez began to lap over a second faster than any other rider on track. During the last laps of the race he hunted down first Terol and then Simón, who had seemed on course for his first Moto2 race win. Márquez ultimately claimed his ninth victory of the season by +1.256 seconds on Simón. Third-placed Terol finished over eleven seconds off the pace.
This was Márquez's last race in Moto2, as he moved into MotoGP for the 2013 season. Espargaró secured second in the championship behind Márquez by finishing in eighth. Simón and Terol completed an all-Spanish podium.

Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round eighteen has concluded.
;Riders' Championship standings
RiderPoints
1