MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 16 / OCTOBER 19-21, 2018
TWIN RING MOTEGI / MOTEGI, JAPAN
P70
three at the bottom of the down-
hill straight, when Quartararo
cleanly out-braked Bagnaia.
From there to the end, the front
three positions didn't change,
although Bagnaia did make a few
attempts in the closing laps. He
was still less than half-a-second
behind over the line; with Baldas-
sarri by then more than five sec-
Iker Lecuona (SII KTM) was slow
away, and losing places in in the
jostle.
Instead it was Baldassarri up
to third from the middle of row
two, chased by Xavi Vierge (Dy-
navolt Kalex), Alex Marquez (EG-
VDS Kalex) and a hard-charging
Oliveira, who had qualified ninth.
The next change came on lap
advantage over Oliveira from an
erstwhile 35 points to 37, even
though the Portuguese was now
effectively a podium finisher.
The leading pair had taken off
from the start, Quartararo in front
off the line from the middle of the
front row only to run a little wide,
ceding the lead to pole starter
Bagnaia. Third front-row man
Francesco Bagnaia (42) chalked
up his eighth Moto2 win of the
season. Here he chases Fabio
Quartararo who crossed the line
first but was later DQ'd.
