With Rossi, Yamaha and Fiat Yamaha having already secured the three 2008 MotoGP titles, there was little at stake by the Valencia season finale - although the battle between Ducati and Honda for second in the constructors' championship provided a notable sideshow to what was ultimately one of the dullest races of the year.

Ducati arrived at Valencia just one point ahead of Honda, effectively meaning whichever machine finished ahead of the other would claim the runner-up position. Stoner, the cornerstone of Ducati's extraordinary success since 2007, delivered for the Italian factory once again by winning the final round by a comfortable 3.4sec from Pedrosa with Rossi, who had qualified just ninth, a further 8.8sec back in third.

Rossi's 16th podium from 18 races gave him a final victory margin of 93 points over Stoner, who had secured second position over Pedrosa before the final round.

Dani, although unable to achieve his goal of a debut Bridgestone victory during the tail end of 2008, did claim three podiums and one pole on the Japanese rubber and remains the only Honda rider to have won an 800cc grand prix. Pedrosa finished 31 points behind Stoner and 59 in front of Lorenzo, who - despite his accidents and injuries - still claimed the rookie of the year title and was also the highest placed (full time) Michelin rider.

Lorenzo's 2008 performance was the best by a rookie since Rossi in 2000 and the Spaniard will have high expectations under equal tyre conditions in 2009, as will Dovizioso - who will ride alongside Pedrosa at Repsol Honda next season. Dovizioso was the highest ranked satellite rider in the 2008 world championship.

Outgoing Repsol rider Hayden scored 28 points more than last year - even though he missed both Misano and Brno due to a foot injury sustained at the X Games - and was ranked sixth in the championship, two places better than his 2007 ranking. However, the #69 was only the third highest Honda, 19 points behind Dovizioso and 94 from Pedrosa.

Despite his early season heroics, which yielded two podiums and five front row starts from the first ten rounds, Edwards suffered a disappointing second half of the season, with a best race finish of sixth. Nevertheless, seventh place in the final standings was two places higher than he'd managed as a full factory Yamaha rider in 2007.

2008 was a disappointing season for Rizla Suzuki, which lost ground relative to its 2007 results in terms of wins, poles, podiums and points. Chris Vermeulen finished the year in eighth position, 16 points from Edwards, with the highlight of his season being consecutive third places at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca.

New team-mate Loris Capirossi qualified second on the grid at Mugello and took a solitary rostrum at Brno, but also missed two rounds due to injury and his eventual tenth place in the championship was three places (and three podiums) less than he'd achieved at Ducati in 2007.

Shinya Nakano bowed out of grand prix racing at the end of 2008. The Japanese made a quiet, if consistent, start to the season with points at each of the first eleven rounds - and was suddenly handed a (spring-valve) factory-spec RCV from Brno onwards. The Gresini rider claimed a season's best fourth on his factory debut, then took fifth place at both Phillip Island and Sepang on his way to ninth in the championship. Nakano will ride for Aprilia in WSBK next year.