The second success of the season for Fabio Quartararo, ahead of Francesco Bagnaia and Lorenzo Baldassarri. The current World Championship leader is just a few steps from the official title.
The GP of Japan ends with an interesting duel between Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia. The French rider of the Speed Up team eventually managed to take the lead and won his second race in Moto2. With his 2nd place, together with Miguel Oliveira’s 4th, the current World Championship leader is now 35 points ahead of the Portuguese rider. His first chance to win the title will come with the Australian Grand Prix. Another Italian rider, Lorenzo Baldassarri, got the 3rd step on the podium.
The beginning of the race was particularly busy today, with the riders taking some real risks crash-wise, even though everyone managed to remain on his bike. Bagnaia immediately tried to leave a large margin from his rivals, closely followed by Quartararo and then Baldassarri 3rd followed by Vierge, Marquez and Oliveira. Pecco’s escape wasn’t really successful though, as a large group of riders was in the mood for battle and kept on following him closely. Corsi was the first withdrawal in today’s race after he fell on turn 10; a few laps after, also his teammate Fuligni slipped on turn 9 and then Navarro on turn 3.
As laps went by, the situation became more and more stable: Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia ran away from the rest of the group and started an intense duel for the victory that lasted until the chequered flag. Eventually, the French rider won the race, but with his 2nd place the current World Championship leader now has an even larger advantage over Miguel Oliveira (4th today) in the overall ranking and can almost reach the official title. Lorenzo Baldassarri took up the last podium’s step, while Alex Marquez finished 5th ahead of Brad Binder and Augusto Fernández. Xavi Vierge ended the race with an 8th place, followed by Iker Lecuona and Luca Marini.
The ranking
