The current World Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia leaves his mark on the first race at the Thai track. Next to him on the podium also teammate Luca Marini and rival Miguel Oliveira.
This was a race unusually filled with crashes, with even the poleman Lorenzo Baldassarri out because of a fall. Francesco Bagnaia became the 1st Moto2 winner at Buriram’s, but the teamwork helped also for the overall World Championship ranking as Luca Marini got the 2nd place, followed by Miguel Oliveira. The latter had some technical issues with his front breaks right before the end of the race (the same happened to his teammate Brad Binder), accumulating a large 28-points margin.
A great beginning for Baldassarri, who takes the lead ahead of Marquez, Marini, Marquez and Bagnaia. But the first crash happened already on Turn 3, making Fernández, Mir and Schrötter fall and leaving them all in pain, but with no serious consequences. Marquez lost some positions after he hit Binder and ended up on the edge of the top 10. As for the head of the group, the battle for the top positions had already started and it became more and more intense especially between the two rivals for the World Champion’s title. Navarro, Odendaal and Manzi soon had to withdraw from the race too, as they all fell in three different accidents on Turn 3 and 5. But Marquez wasn’t any luckier and he went down trying to regain the margin from the leading riders. The same happened to Baldassarri, who slipped on Turn 1.
The fight for the podium ended ten laps before the end: Francesco Bagnaia managed to accumulate a large margin from the KTMs, that seemed to be suffering the track conditions. Marini didn’t miss the chance to start fighting for a better position on the podium with the two riders just ahead of him. The current World Championship leader eventually won the race, confirming his leadership as he is now 28 points ahead in the overall ranking. Luca Marini crossed the finishing line 2nd, followed by Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder. Fabio Quartararo gained the 5th place, while Mattia Pasini, Iker Lecuona, and Tetsuta Nagashima arrived after him in this order. The remaining positions in the top 10 went to Andrea Locatelli and Simone Corsi.
The ranking
