Racing: Vermeulen focussed on final MotoGP ride - Motorbikes Reviews, News & Advice

Queenslander Chris Vermeulen is the only rider to have scored points at every round of this year's MotoGP title, and he is still in the hunt for seventh place in the championship ahead of his last appearance in the class at Valencia this Sunday.

Grouped in with a quintet of riders - which includes his team-mate Loris Capirossi - disputing seventh in the standings and separated by just three points, Vermeulen is determined to leave MotoGP with a positive result at the end of his fourth season with Suzuki.

"I am totally focused on going out on a high at Valencia," Vermeulen explained. "This will be my last race in MotoGP - for at least a couple of years - and I want to make sure it is one that I can be proud of.

"My time with the Suzuki team has been great and my crew has worked tirelessly throughout my time here to give me the best bike they can whatever the conditions, so a good result will be as much for them as for myself.

"I have scored points in every race this year and want to make the last one the highest points scoring one. I will certainly be going for a podium this weekend, I know that will be tough, but that's the target and one that I would really love to achieve."

Vermeulen will return to the sanctuary of world superbike in 2009 on a factory Kawasaki.

Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi may have sealed the 2009 MotoGP World Championship at Sepang, but there are still scores to be settled involving Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, and a host of other riders at Valencia.

Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo pushed him the closest for the title this year, and now the 22 year-old looks primed to secure second spot in his second season in the premier class. With a 25pt margin between him and Australia's Casey Stoner in third, it would take a non-point scoring finish from the Spaniard and a race win for the Ducati Marlboro man to dislodge Lorenzo from the runner-up position.

Far likelier for Stoner, who comes into round 17 in a rich vein of form having won his last two races at Sepang and Phillip Island, is third place to round off a season interrupted by illness. Speculation will linger as to how the final standings could have looked had the 2007 world champion not missed Brno, Indianapolis and Misano due to fatigue, but the focus is now on preventing Dani Pedrosa from regaining third place. With victory last year and second the season before, the 24-year-old has a strong pedigree at Valencia.

Repsol Honda's Pedrosa is 11pts adrift in fourth, and needs a strong showing at a track where he won in 2007 and finished second at last time out.

The competition for fifth place is still very much alive, with just 6pts the difference between Andrea Dovizioso and Colin Edwards. The Italian's crash at Sepang was not largely capitalised on by Edwards, whose 13th-placed classification means that the fight for fifth will now go down to the wire at Valencia.

Seventh place, meanwhile, is still to be decided upon between no less than six likely candidates. Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Alex de Angelis and Toni Elías (both San Carlo Honda Gresini), Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) are all separated by just 7pts from positions 7-12.

All have top 10 finishes at Valencia within the past two seasons, with Melandri's fourth in 2007 the most notable recent result from the pack. Nicky Hayden, at a further 8pts adrift of De Puniet, has an outside chance of challenging for seventh if he manages his second podium of the year and other results go his way.

Also riding at Valencia will be American star Ben Spies, who will take to the track as a wildcard for Yamaha in preparation for his first full MotoGP season with Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in 2010.

Spies recently wrapped up the 2009 world superbike title in his rookie season.

Rossi and Lorenzo will also battle it out for the coveted BMW M Best Qualifier Award 2009 this Saturday, with the winner to receive a brand new M3 sedan.

Rossi has 330pts in the BMW M Award standings, 12 more than Lorenzo. For Lorenzo, he has to get pole position, while for Rossi he just has to be fourth or better to take home the 420hp BMW.