Luca Marini won his first Moto2 Grand Prix, in doing so, helping his team-mate Pecco Bagnaia win the 2018 Moto2 World Championship.
The Italian started from the middle of the front row and took the lead going into the long first corner. Marini then never relinquished the lead, winning his first ever Grand Prix race at his 53rd time of asking.
Despite the perfect ride from Marini, the story of the day was that of Marini’s Sky Racing VR46 team-mate Pecco Bagnaia. Coming into the race 36 points ahead of second placed Miguel Oliveira, Bagnaia knew that if he surrendered less than 12 points to the Portguese rider he would win the title.
Both Bagnaia and Oliveira came right to the fore and by the end of the first lap were set in second and third behind Marini. Bagnaia was originally in second and despite Oliveira moving past the Italian into second, Bagnaia never let Oliviera out of his sights, knowing that a third place finish would be enough.
With Marini winning and Oliveira second, Bagnana came home in third position to win the 2018 World Championship, the first for the Sky Racing VR46 team and the second consecutive VR46 riders academy student to take the crown after Franco Morbidelli’s success last year.
Mattia Pasini was fourth on his Italtrans Kalex, just ahead of Fabio Quartararo who was fifth, passing Lorenzo Baldassarri in the final corner. Pole sitter Alex Marquez never had the pace to challenge at the front and will be disappointed to only manage seventh place, with Brad Binder, Marcel Schrotter and Joan Mir rounding out the top ten.
