Moto2 Valencia: Oliveira ends season with third consecutive win
Miguel Oliveira took his third win in a row after catching and passing Franco Morbidelli for victory in the Moto2 Valencia Grand Prix.
Recording another win for KTM in their debut Moto2 season, the Red Bull rider becomes the first non Kalex rider to takes three consecutive wins since Marc Marquez completed the feat on a Suter in his championship winning 2012 season.
The Portuguese rider proved you can win at the Ricardo Tormo circuit without securing a front row start as he chased down Morbidelli from fourth on the grid, and after initial trouble passing Alex Marquez who made himself hard to get round he set about eliminating the Italians lead with eight laps remaining.
He then not only passed the championship winner, but gapped him by 2.1 seconds at the line.
Morbidelli had pulled away after an early battle with team-mate Marquez but despite giving everything had no reply leaving him second for EG 0,0 Marc VDS on his Kalex.
The pair were joined on the podium by Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, the team celebrating two riders on the rostrum as the South African overcame foot spasms for third.
Francesco Bagnaia (Sky Racing Team VR46) was already assured rookie of the year status ahead of the race but too passed Marquez late on to claim fourth, with the Spaniard fifth at the flag.
Hafizh Syahrin was clear in sixth for Petronas Raceline Malaysia, well ahead of Idemitsu’s Taka Nakagami in seventh.
A late surge saw Fabio Quartararo climb to eighth for Pons HP40, pushing Simone Corsi back to ninth for Speed Up. Dominique took the final slot inside the top ten for Kiefer Racing and was the top Suter finisher.
Axel Pons (RW Racing GP) clawed his way up to eleventh passing SAG Team rider Isaac Vinales who finished twelfth.
Marcel Schrotter crossed the line in 13th for Dynavolt Intact GP, Augusto Fernandez was back in the points in 14th for Speed Up, with Lorenzo Baldassarri fighting back from qualifying down in 31st to finish 15th for Forward Racing.
Wild-card Eric Granado (Promoracing Kalex) placed 17th just behind Italtrans man Andrea Locatelli, who first found himself subject to a three place grid penalty,then had to give back a place in the race on his way to 18th.
Stefano Manzi was the first to fall, quickly followed by Mattia Pasini, who slid out of third on lap four, though he remounted to finish 19th.
Tom Luthi’s replacement Ricky Cardus was making progress towards the top ten when he crashed out two laps later. Xavier Simeon retired to the pits soon after.
Sandro Cortese was next to exit slipping into the gravel at turn eleven with eighteen laps remaining, Jorge Navarro went cartwheeling out on the next lap which also claimed Tetsuta Nagashima.
Xavi Vierge was the final faller.
Wild-card Jake Dixon missed the race after another big crash in warm-up.
