Moto2 Malaysia: Back to back wins for Oliveira and KTM
Miguel Oliveira sailed past pole man Franco Morbidelli in the first corner and charged away to win the Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang off the back of his first win in the class with KTM last time out in Australia.
Oliveira pulled out a massive lead of over four seconds, which was cut slightly to 2.3 seconds at the chequered flag as the rain arrived, signalling its arrival with flashes of lightning and thunder.
Rookie Brad Binder was truly back to his best in second again after a late pass on Morbidelli, motivated by the weather after following carefully and waiting to pounce, giving Red Bull KTM Ajo consecutive 1-2 finishes.
The biggest smile on the podium belonged to the 0,0 Marc VDS man though as he became world champion in Sepang, and was able to celebrate with a podium finish after coming home third.
The Italian had become world champion before turning a wheel after it was announced earlier in the morning that Tom Luthi sadly would not be able to fight for the championship after breaking his ankle in his horrible qualifying fall. Morbidelli is the first of the VR46 academy riders to secure a world title.
Mattia Pasini showed no fear in the changeable conditions and stated to pick off the opposition, using his experience to power the Italtrans to fourth.
He left in his wake the battle for fifth, which was won by Sky Racing VR46 rider Pecco Bagnaia after he caught and passed Pons HP40 rider Fabio Quartararo. The Frenchman was then denied the opportunity to equal his best finish of sixth by Hafizh Syahrin, the Petronas Raceline Malaysia rider eager to perform well on home soil.
A late charge elevated Tech 3’s Xavi Vierge to eighth and pushed him past SAG Racing man Isaac Vinales leaving him ninth.
His team-mate Tetsuta Nagashima found himself inside the top ten for the first time ever in a race which only had eighteen people cross the finish line.
Simone Corsi took eleventh for Speed Up and his team-mate Augusto Fernandez recovered from stalling the bike on the sighting lap to slice through to twelfth, his best Moto2 performance to date.
Andrea Locatelli (Italtrans) finished 13th, Iker Lecuona (Garage Plus Interwetten) 14th with his team-mate Jesko Raffin collecting the final point in 15th.
The only other people to finish the race were 16th place Edgar Pons, late faller Marcel Schrotter in 17th and Xavier Simeon’s replacement rider Alex De Angelis in 18th .
Malaysian Khairul Idham Pawi fell on his first lap at home along with Luca Marini, Axel Pons and Andrea Locatelli. At the same time Alex Marquez slid out of second. He returned to the race only to fall again.
Shortly after Sandro Cortese flew out spectacularly with his bike on fire, joined by a battered and bruised Taka Nakagami alongside him in the gravel after being clipped as the German flew past.
Wild-card Dimas Ekky Pratama was heading for the top ten when he was clipped by Remy Gardner on his way off track early in the race.
Stefano Manzi slipped out of a three way race for seventh with eight laps remaining. Lorenzo Baldassarri crashed out one lap later at turn six.
Both Dominique Aegerter and Tarran Mackenzie missed the race after being withdrawn by their team following the sudden death of boss Stefan Kiefer.
