TOUGH FINALE FOR TAKA AT VALENCIA

Takaaki Nakagami was unable to finish the 2021 MotoGP World Championship on a high as he slid out in the early stages on the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix. The LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider had shown good speed all weekend at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, but couldn’t translate that promise into a positive result in the final round of the year.

Having topped FP4 on Saturday, Taka again underlined his pace by going second fastest in Sunday’s warm-up session. In the race itself, he lost places in the drag to the first corner, but fought back strongly to sit 11^th at the end of the opening lap. However, as he pushed to pass Valentino Rossi on lap five, he lost the front end of his Honda at turn six.