Moto2 Thailand: Bagnaia takes control for win as KTM rivals fade
Francesco Bagnaia survived a frantic few opening laps with championship rival Miguel Oliveira and his team-mate Brad Binder before taking control and pulling out a lead for victory in the first ever Moto2 Thailand Grand Prix.
The Sky Racing Team VR46 rider was part of a fabulous display of aggressive overtakes and small errors before arriving at the front of the trio and refocussing and settling on his Kalex to eventually win by 1.512s. It is his tenth podium finish of the year, seven of which are now victories.
His championship lead was then improved further - ‘Pecco’ is now 28 points ahead - by a storming performance from his team-mate Luca Marini who caught and then passed the Red Bull KTM Ajo duo on his way to second.
Miguel Oliveira had a front brake issue which he couldn’t fix on board and left him unable to reply, but he limited the damage by taking the final podium spot, finishing just ahead of Brad Binder.
Fabio Quartararo gave chase to the leaders but could not find a way to bridge the gap, he was the best of the rest in fifth for Speed Up.
The Frenchman was in turn well clear of Mattia Pasini, who had a fairly lonely ride in sixth for Italtrans.
Iker Lecuona posted his second best result of the season in seventh for Swiss Innovative Investors and was again well ahead of eighth place finisher Tetsuta Nagashima (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia).
The gaps continued with Andrea Locatelli next to arrive at the chequered flag on the second Italtrans entry for ninth, with another wait for Simone Corsi to claim tenth after making some late progress for Tasca Racing.
Xavi Vierge rallied after qualifying down in 20th to bounce back and take eleventh for Dynavolt Intact GP . He passed Remy Gardner, leaving him twelfth after he too recovered after a bad QP performance(19th) for Tech 3.
Joe Roberts won the battle to be top rookie behind them. The American kept his NTS RW Racing machine ahead of rival Bo Bendsneyder (Tech 3) to claim 13th.
The final point went to Niki Tuuli for Petronas Sprinta racing.
Local replacement rider Thitipong Warokorn, in for Alejandro Medina at SAG Team, came close to claiming a points finish in 18th, one place ahead of Edgar Pons, who has taken over from Danny Kent at Speed Up.
There were early exits for Joan Mir, Marcel Schrotter and Augusto Fernandez, who all fell together on the first lap. Mir went to the medical centre for a check up and was later declared fit.
They were soon joined by Jorge Navarro who fell on the very next lap, then Stefano Manzi - his 28th ‘off’ this season, with Steven Odendaal crashing out soon after. Navarro rejoined but finished just outside the points places in 17th.
Alex Marquez was next to slide out, with nineteen laps remaining, polesitter Lorenzo Baldassarri lasted just two laps longer. He rejoined but later retired to the pits.
Sam Lowes pushed hard on the final lap to make up some places but it lead to the Brit crashing out.
