Valencia, 4 November: Spanish hero Carlos Checa made an emotional farewell to his grand prix career and the Honda LCR team with a brave performance in the Valencia Grand Prix. Checa rode through the pain barrier of a stomach infection to finish in 12th position, finishing ahead of factory Yamaha rider Colin Edwards after a long battle.

Checa forced back tears as he received a champagne welcome from the LCR team, family and friends after an exhausting race. Checa spent Friday night in hospital and missed both the Saturday free practice and pre-race warm-up sessions because of his painful stomach problems. The race was won by Dani Pedrosa before capacity of 132,500 spectators.

CHECA: Twelfth - Championship: 14th/65 points

CHECA: “I’m a little emotional because I still have a great feeling for this fantastic sport, although I have been very sick this weekend. My aim was just to finish the race as way of saying good-bye to my fans and friends and seven laps from the finish I started to have a lot pain in my stomach. But I enjoyed the battle with group of Tamada, Edwards and briefly Rossi. In the end I was ahead of them but unable to catch Guintoli. I was not aggressive from ninth position at the start, but as the feeling came to me I started to push hard to the finish. Grand prix racing has been a great part of my life but now I start a new adventure in Superbikes.”

In the 250cc Grand Prix, Eugene Laverty completed his rookie season with Honda LCR by finishing 21st, unable to match his pace from pre-season testing.

LAVERTY: “It’s been a tough year but I’ve learnt a lot. On the first lap Fabrizio Lai crashed in front me and I ran wide into the gravel but it’s disappointing that we could not find the set-up to go faster. I was having huge slides."