MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi bows out of the sport he was the king of with 10th place in Valencia

Valentino Rossi bowed out of his glittering motorcycling career on Sunday finishing 10th at the season-ending Valencia MotoGP, won by Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.

The 42-year-old Rossi, a nine-time world champion across categories, took all the applause from the 75,000 crowd as he rode an ovation lap in Valencia, which was his 432nd GP since starting his career back in 1996.

Jorge Martin, of the Ducati-Pramac team, and Jack Miller (Ducati) completed the podium at the 18th race of the season while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who had already secured the world championship, finished fifth.

It was a fourth win of the season for Bagnaia, who came through the VR46 Academy created by Rossi. The 24-year-old finished the season 26 points behind Quartararo as runner-up in the title race.

He dominated the race but once former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo waved the chequered flag, all the attention turned to Rossi as the riders stopped to pay homage and fireworks went off around the stands.