Moto2™: Francesco Bagnaia (SKY Racing Team VR46) scored his seventh win of the season.

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Francesco Bagnaia (SKY Racing Team VR46) claimed a magnificent seventh win of 2018 at the PTT Thailand Grand Prix to claim the 800th Italian Grand Prix win, finishing ahead of teammate Luca Marini by 1.5 seconds after the latter got the better of Bagnaia’s title rival Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) on the final lap.

Thailand temperatures were soaring and so was the battle on track between the Moto2™ Championship protagonists, who were joined at the front by Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) in a proper dogfight at the front after making their way to the summit in the opening exchanges from P5 and P6 on the grid respectively. Uncharacteristically though, Bagnaia ran wide at Turn 12 on a couple of occasions and almost collected the rear of Oliveira as the trio ran in close into the tricky Turn 3, before Binder then lost control under braking into Turn 5, narrowly avoiding his teammate to drop to P3 – tensions running high on circuit.

Bagnaia though had composed himself and started to reel in Oliveira after the race leader had been able to grab a half-second lead, before Bagnaia took P1 with 13 laps to go. It was then a case of the Italian finding his rhythm out front, slamming home two consecutive fastest laps to stretch the gap to over a second with 10 to go.

The lead slowly edged out to 1.5 seconds with four laps to go with Marini now starting to look menacing in P4, closing down Binder as he eyed his first podium finish since Austria. The Italian clawed the gap down to nothing with three to go, with teammate Bagnaia managing the gap out front. Marini made his move into Turn 12 past Binder and with two to go, with the Italian then locking his radar on Oliveira heading into the last lap.

Turn 3 then saw Oliveira run wide in what turned out to be a costly error. Marini swept through and held station to play the perfect wingman to teammate Bagnaia, as the latter crossed the line to take his seventh win of the season – 28 points now the advantage heading into the final four races of the year.

Binder crossed the line fourth to finish just off the podium, another solid ride for the South African, with Fabio Quartararo (MB Conveyors – Speed Up) finishing in a lonely fifth place after an early battle with Marini. After looking strong across Free Practice and qualifying, Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Racing Team) picks up a P6 in Thailand, with Iker Lecuona (Swiss Innovative Investors) claiming his first top ten since Austria in P7. Eighth was Tetsuta Nagashima (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), a career-best finish for the Japanese rider before he heads to his home GP at Motegi, with Andrea Locatelli (Italtrans Racing Team) and Simone Corsi (Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2) completing the top ten at the Chang International Circuit.

There was first lap drama with Joan Mir (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Augusto Fernandez (Pons HP40) going down at Turn 3 after Mir lost the front, leaving Schrotter and Fernandez with nowhere to go. Elsewhere, pole man Lorenzo Baldassarri (Pons HP40) crashed out of contention at Turn 1 with 16 to go after Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) had lost the front heading into Turn 5 two laps earlier – both pushing to keep tabs on the leading trio.

Stefano Manzi (Forward Racing) and Sam Lowes (Swiss Innovative Investors) crashed out too – riders ok.

After a masterful ride, Bagnaia takes charge of the intermediate class title race. However, with the trio of flyway races next and with Oliveira winning the final three races of 2017, the Championship certainly isn’t done and dusted. Onto Japan we go then for more spectacular Moto2™ action.

PTT THAILAND GRAND PRIX

Moto2 Race Classification 2018.

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	42	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	SKY Racing Team VR46	Kalex	168.1	39’00.009
2	20	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	SKY Racing Team VR46	Kalex	168.0	+1.512
3	16	44	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	168.0	+1.651
4	13	41	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	168.0	+1.808
5	11	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	MB Conveyors – Speed Up	Speed Up	167.6	+6.260
6	10	54	Mattia PASINI	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	167.3	+11.784
7	9	27	Iker LECUONA	SPA	Swiss Innovative Investors	KTM	167.0	+15.290
8	8	45	Tetsuta NAGASHIMA	JPN	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	166.9	+16.903
9	7	5	Andrea LOCATELLI	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	166.8	+18.608
10	6	24	Simone CORSI	ITA	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	166.6	+21.181
11	5	97	Xavi VIERGE	SPA	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	166.5	+22.021
12	4	87	Remy GARDNER	AUS	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	166.4	+23.957
13	3	16	Joe ROBERTS	USA	NTS RW Racing GP	NTS	166.3	+24.668
14	2	64	Bo BENDSNEYDER	NED	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	166.2	+26.302
15	1	66	Niki TUULI	FIN	Petronas Sprinta Racing	Kalex	166.2	+26.817
16		77	Dominique AEGERTER	SWI	Kiefer Racing	KTM	165.9	+30.758
17		9	Jorge NAVARRO	SPA	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	Kalex	165.6	+34.782
18		99	Thitipong WAROKORN	THA	SAG Team	Kalex	165.4	+38.315
19		57	Edgar PONS	SPA	MB Conveyors – Speed Up	Speed Up	165.3	+40.294
20		95	Jules DANILO	FRA	Nashi Argan SAG Team	Kalex	165.2	+40.845
21		89	Khairul Idham PAWI	MAL	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	165.2	+41.349
22		18	Xavi CARDELUS	AND	Marinelli Snipers Team	Kalex	165.0	+43.908
23		4	Steven ODENDAAL	RSA	NTS RW Racing GP	NTS	164.1	+57.257
24		32	Isaac VIÑALES	SPA	Forward Racing Team	Suter	163.9	+59.207
25		21	Federico FULIGNI	ITA	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	163.9	+59.383
Not Classified
		22	Sam LOWES	GBR	Swiss Innovative Investors	KTM	166.1	1 Lap
		7	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	ITA	Pons HP40	Kalex	151.1	14 Laps
		73	Alex MARQUEZ	SPA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	147.7	18 Laps
		62	Stefano MANZI	ITA	Forward Racing Team	Suter	157.5	23 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
		40	Augusto FERNANDEZ	SPA	Pons HP40	Kalex		0 Lap
		23	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex		0 Lap
		36	Joan MIR	SPA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex		0 Lap

Moto2 World Standing 2018.

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Nation	Points
1	Francesco BAGNAIA	Kalex	ITA	259
2	Miguel OLIVEIRA	KTM	POR	231
3	Brad BINDER	KTM	RSA	157
4	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	Kalex	ITA	132
5	Alex MARQUEZ	Kalex	SPA	126
6	Joan MIR	Kalex	SPA	124
7	Marcel SCHROTTER	Kalex	GER	118
8	Mattia PASINI	Kalex	ITA	113
9	Fabio QUARTARARO	Speed Up	FRA	111
10	Luca MARINI	Kalex	ITA	104
11	Xavi VIERGE	Kalex	SPA	101
12	Jorge NAVARRO	Kalex	SPA	55
13	Iker LECUONA	KTM	SPA	52
14	Simone CORSI	Kalex	ITA	47
15	Sam LOWES	KTM	GBR	46
16	Andrea LOCATELLI	Kalex	ITA	41
17	Remy GARDNER	Tech 3	AUS	28
18	Dominique AEGERTER	KTM	SWI	27
19	Tetsuta NAGASHIMA	Kalex	JPN	16
20	Romano FENATI	Kalex	ITA	14
21	Augusto FERNANDEZ	Kalex	SPA	14
22	Hector BARBERA	Kalex	SPA	10
23	Stefano MANZI	Suter	ITA	8
24	Danny KENT	Speed Up	GBR	8
25	Isaac VIÑALES	Suter	SPA	7
26	Joe ROBERTS	NTS	USA	5
27	Bo BENDSNEYDER	Tech 3	NED	2
28	Khairul Idham PAWI	Kalex	MAL	1
29	Steven ODENDAAL	NTS	RSA	1
30	Niki TUULI	Kalex	FIN	1
31	Jesko RAFFIN	Kalex	SWI	1
32	Edgar PONS	Speed Up	SPA
33	Thitipong WAROKORN	Kalex	THA
34	Eric GRANADO	Suter	BRA
35	Jules DANILO	Kalex	FRA
36	Hector GARZO	Tech 3	SPA
37	Lukas TULOVIC	KTM	GER
38	Federico FULIGNI	Kalex	ITA
39	Xavi CARDELUS	Kalex	AND
40	Alejandro MEDINA	Kalex	SPA
41	Sheridan MORAIS	Kalex	POR
42	Dimas EKKY PRATAMA	Honda	INA
43	Corentin PEROLARI	Transformiers	FRA
44	Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN	Kalex	MAL
45	Cedric TANGRE	Tech 3	FRA

Credits : Photos and content courtesy of motogp.com

Moto2™: Francesco Bagnaia (SKY Racing Team VR46) scored his seventh win of the season.

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PTT THAILAND GRAND PRIX

Moto2 World Standing 2018.

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