MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 14 / OCTOBER 5-7, 2018
CHANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / BURIRAM, THAILAND
P84
Match point number one for Marquez (center). He can wrap up his
fifth MotoGP title at the next race in Japan.
will be his. Rossi and Vinales are
next with 172 and 146; Lorenzo
(130) dropped to fifth.
Moto2
The race was already compel-
ling. At the finish, it became fas-
cinating—and deeply depressing
for the Red Bull KTM teamsters,
as championship leader Pecco
Bagnaia's seventh win of the
year was backed up in the last
lap when SKY VR46 Kalex team-
mate Luca Marini pushed past
into a valuable second place.
Title rival Miguel Oliveira had
disputed the lead in the early
Hafizh Syahrin (Monster
Yamaha) was a strong 12th, top
rookie, with his rival for that
title, Franco Morbidelli (EG-VDS
Honda) 14th, Aleix Espargaro's
Aprilia between the pair—the only
rider to gamble on the soft rear
tire, against Michelin's advice.
Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM)
finally won a long and close fight
with Scott Redding (Aprilia) for
the final point.
With four races to go, Mar-
quez now has 271 points and a
77-point lead over Dovizioso, at
194. If he can preserve that at
the next round in Japan, the title
Ducati), who'd been dropped to
15th on the first lap after clashing
with Franco Morbidelli's EG-VDS
Honda. He'd been firmly gain-
ing places ever since, and was
just two tenths behind seventh-
placed Crutchlow over the line.
He'd sliced past the Alma
Pramac Ducatis, where Jack
Miller had finally given way to his
teammate Danilo Petrucci, also
battling lost tire grip. The pair
had been fighting with Andrea
Iannone, but he'd slowed radi-
cally in the last laps for the same
reason, and was almost five
seconds down in 11th.
