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Race report

Thailand Moto2: Bagnaia wins as Sky VR46 takes 1-2

Francesco Bagnaia won the Moto2 race in Thailand and extended his points lead after his teammate Luca Marini passed Miguel Oliveira on the last lap to complete a Sky VR46 1-2.

Francesco Bagnaia, Sky Racing Team VR46

Francesco Bagnaia, Sky Racing Team VR46

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia was up into the lead already on the opening lap from sixth on the grid with a move on Lorenzo Baldassarri at Turn 8.

Ajo KTM duo Oliveira and Brad Binder both passed Baldassarri a lap later, and the duo put Bagnaia under pressure.

The future Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider made a couple of mistakes early on - he ran wide twice at Turn 12, giving up the lead to Oliveira both times.

However, Bagnaia was able to fight back every time, the last of his moves on Oliveira a brave overtake at the first Turn 4 left-hander.

After he made that move on lap 12, he started to show pace Oliveira could not match, and gradually extended his lead to over a second.

Bagnaia cruised to the finish to win by 1.5s as Oliveira and Binder switched their attention to the championship leader's teammate Marini.

Marini looked set to join the leading trio at one point earlier but, just as he got close enough, he made a mistake.

He was still able to catch up for the final few laps and first passed Binder before taking advantage of a mistake from Oliveira at Turn 3 on the final lap.

Oliveira had to settle for third, losing a further nine points in the championship as his teammate Binder did not trouble him and finished a close fourth.

Fabio Quartararo (Speed Up) battled with Marini during the race but didn't have the pace to keep up late on as he took fifth, 6.2s adrift.

Mattia Pasini (Italtrans) finished sixth followed by Iker Lecuona (CGBM) and Tetsuta Nagashima (Honda Team Asia) who took his first top 10 result in Moto2 in eighth.

The top 10 was completed by Andrea Locatelli (Italtrans) and Simone Corsi (Tasca).

Joan Mir, Marcel Schrotter and Augusto Fernandez had a crash on the opening lap, with Stefano Manzi falling a lap later.

Alex Marquez and Baldassarri both crashed from the top five, while Sam Lowes fell on the last lap.

Race results:

Pos. Rider Bike Gap
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia  Kalex 39'00.009
2 Italy Luca Marini  Kalex 1.512
3 Portugal Miguel Oliveira  KTM 1.651
4 South Africa Brad Binder  KTM 1.808
5 France Fabio Quartararo  Speed Up 6.260
6 Italy Mattia Pasini  Kalex 11.784
7 Spain Iker Lecuona  KTM 15.290
8 Japan Tetsuta Nagashima  Kalex 16.903
9 Italy Andrea Locatelli  Kalex 18.608
10 Italy Simone Corsi  Kalex 21.181
11 Spain Xavi Vierge  Kalex 22.021
12 Australia Remy Gardner  Tech 3 23.957
13 United States Joe Roberts  NTS 24.668
14 Netherlands Bo Bendsneyder  Tech 3 26.302
15 Finland Niki Tuuli  Kalex 26.817
16 Switzerland Dominique Aegerter  KTM 30.758
17 Spain Jorge Navarro  Kalex 34.782
18 Thailand Thitipong Warokorn  Kalex 38.315
19 Spain Edgar Pons  Kalex 40.294
20 France Jules Danilo  Kalex 40.845
21 Malaysia Khairul Idham Pawi  Kalex 41.349
22 Andorra Xavi Cardelus  Kalex 43.908
23 South Africa Steven Odendaal  NTS 57.257
24 Spain Isaac Viñales  Suter 59.207
25 Italy Federico Fuligni  Kalex 59.383
Ret United Kingdom Sam Lowes  KTM 1 Lap
Ret Italy Lorenzo Baldassarri  Kalex 14 Laps
Ret Spain Alex Marquez  Kalex 18 Laps
Ret Italy Stefano Manzi  Suter 23 Laps
Ret Spain Augusto Fernandez  Kalex -
Ret Germany Marcel Schrotter  Kalex -
Ret Spain Joan Mir  Kalex -

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