Francesco Bagnaia claimed the MotoGP world crown in the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday to pull off the greatest title turnaround in the championship’s history.

The Ducati rider, who trailed outgoing champion Fabio Quartararo by 91 points mid-season, completed his astonishing comeback with ninth place behind race winner Alex Rins.

“World champion - it sounds good” said Bagnaia, universally known as ‘Pecco’.

“That was the hardest race of my life,” the 25-year-old added.

“I was struggling. My aim was to be in the top five, but I started to struggle after a few laps,  but the most important thing is we are world champions.”

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