2021 Valencia MotoGP, Ricardo Tormo circuit - Friday Free Practice LIVE!

The 2021 season and Valentino Rossi's legendary MotoGP career reaches its conclusion at this weekend's Valencia finale.

Rossi will bow out of the sport on Sunday after 26 years in grand prix racing, during which he has tasted victory 115 times and celebrated nine world championships.

The only current rider anywhere near such dizzying heights is eight-time champion Marc Marquez, but the Honda rider will finish the season where he started it – on the sidelines - due to vision problems triggered by a recent training accident.

Newly crowned world champion Fabio Quartararo and closest rival Francesco Bagnaia lead the favourites for victory this weekend.

Bagnaia will be looking to continue a run of three wins and five podiums from the last seven, with Quartararo winless since Silverstone and aiming to bounce back from his first race crash of the season, last weekend at Portimao.

Ducati's one-three finish in Portugal confirmed the factory as the 2021 constructors' champions as well as a 28-point lead (maximum of 45 points still available) over Monster Yamaha for the teams' title, which will be settled on Sunday.

Former world champion Joan Mir returned to frontrunning form in Portimao and now has just one chance left to salvage a race victory from the 2021 campaign, at a circuit where he took his only MotoGP win to date one year ago.

Bagnaia's team-mate Jack Miller ended his podium drought in Portimao and fought for victory with Franco Morbidelli in the second Valencia event last season. The Australian will also be among the favourites if the forecast showers materialise this weekend.

While the top three places in the world championship have been decided for Quartararo, Bagnaia and Mir, Miller holds a slender two-point lead over Pramac Ducati's Johann Zarco for fourth place.

Just behind them, KTM's Brad Binder only needs to score one point to snatch sixth position from the absent Marc Marquez.

Aprilia riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales are separated by seven points in the battle for eighth, but with Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda), Alex Rins (Suzuki), Enea Bastianini (Avintia Ducati), Miguel Oliveira (KTM) and Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) all also within mathematical reach of Aleix.

Sunday's race will also mark the final MotoGP outings for Tech3 KTM riders Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona, who will be replaced by Moto2 stars Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez next season.

The Moto2 world championship is the only title still be decided, although Gardner starts the finale with a what should be a 'safe' 23-point lead over team-mate Fernandez…

But the pressure is off for fellow Ajo rider and newly crowned champion Pedro Acosta in Moto3.

The rookie will now aim to sign off his short but spectacular Moto3 career with a seventh win, while rival Dennis Foggia tries to erase last weekend's heartache with his sixth victory of 2021.