Sepang Moto2: Bagnaia seals title, Marini wins race

Bagnaia arrived in Malaysia 36 points clear of Oliveira, meaning he could afford to finish outside the points as long as Oliveira didn’t end up in the top two.

The 2019 Pramac Ducati MotoGP signing was immediately on the move when the 18-lap race began, jumping up from sixth to second on the opening lap.

Oliveira slotted himself right behind Bagnaia and passed him into Turn 4 on lap seven, but second place simply wasn’t enough to keep the title fight going to the Valencia finale.

Bagnaia was declared champion, having built an unassailable 32-point lead over Oliveira with only 25 on offer in the final race.

Story of the race

It was Marini who made the best start from the front row, sprinting to the lead ahead of the battling pair of Bagnaia and Oliveira.

The two championship protagonists traded places several times before Oliveira made a decisive move at the start of lap seven to secure second, and then set about chasing Marini for the lead.

Marini ran wide at turn 1 on lap 13, bringing Oliveira into contention, but the Sky VR46 rider recouped the place immediately to build a small buffer again.

He held on to score his first victory of the season, bettering his second place result from the Czech Republic.

Bagnaia dropped into the clutches of Mattia Pasini, but did enough to finish third - and with it clinch the Moto2 title ahead of his graduation to the premier class.

Fabio Quartararo (Speed Up) passed both Pons rider Lorenzo Baldassarri and Marc VDS man Alex Marquez on the final lap to finish fifth behind Pasini (Italrans).

Polesitter Marquez recovered from a scruffy opening lap to run as high as fifth, but faded towards the latter stages of the race and ended up seventh.

Ajo’s Brad Binder was next up in eighth, while Marcel Schrotter (Intact) and reigning Moto3 champion Joan Mir (Marc VDS) completed the top 10.

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	10	Luca Marini	Kalex	38'25.689
2	44	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	38'26.883	1.194
3	42	Francesco Bagnaia	Kalex	38'28.709	3.020
4	54	Mattia Pasini	Kalex	38'30.186	4.497
5	20	Fabio Quartararo	Speed Up	38'30.939	5.250
6	7	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	38'30.994	5.305
7	73	Alex Marquez	Kalex	38'33.379	7.690
8	41	Brad Binder	KTM	38'34.632	8.943
9	23	Marcel Schrotter	Kalex	38'35.376	9.687
10	36	Joan Mir	Kalex	38'44.236	18.547
11	97	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	38'44.505	18.816
12	5	Andrea Locatelli	Kalex	38'45.428	19.739
13	9	Jorge Navarro	Kalex	38'46.866	21.177
14	77	Dominique Aegerter	KTM	38'47.649	21.960
15	22	Sam Lowes	KTM	38'52.564	26.875
16	24	Simone Corsi	Kalex	38'54.204	28.515
17	89	Khairul Idham Pawi	Kalex	38'54.491	28.802
18	16	Joe Roberts	NTS	38'55.480	29.791
19	2	Jesko Raffin	Kalex	38'56.246	30.557
20	57	Edgar Pons	Speed Up	38'56.758	31.069
21	4	Steven Odendaal	NTS	39'04.119	38.430
22	95	Jules Danilo	Kalex	39'08.619	42.930
23	30	Dimas Ekky Pratama	Tech 3	39'23.196	57.507
24	32	Isaac Viñales	Suter	39'23.599	57.910
25	21	Federico Fuligni	Kalex	39'29.426	1'03.737
26	50	Rafid Topan	Suter	40'29.755	2'04.066
	40	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	17'11.225	10 Laps
	66	Niki Tuuli	Kalex	15'16.913	11 Laps
	45	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	16'52.796	11 Laps
	87	Remy Gardner	Tech 3	11'24.485	13 Laps
	18	Xavi Cardelus	Kalex	12'02.737	13 Laps
	27	Iker Lecuona	KTM	5'27.706	16 Laps